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A Collection of College Words and Customs written by Benjamin Homer Hall

B >> Benjamin Homer Hall >> A Collection of College Words and Customs




I asked a _bed-maker_ where Mr. ----'s chambers were.--_Gent.
Mag._, 1795, p. 118.

While the grim _bed-maker_ provokes the dust,
And soot-born atoms, which his tomes encrust.
_The College.--A sketch in verse_, in _Blackwood's Mag._, May,
1849.

The _bed-makers_ are the women who take care of the rooms: there
is about one to each staircase, that is to say, to every eight
rooms. For obvious reasons they are selected from such of the fair
sex as have long passed the age at which they might have had any
personal attractions. The first intimation which your bed-maker
gives you is that she is bound to report you to the tutor if ever
you stay out of your rooms all night.--_Bristed's Five Years in an
Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 15.


BEER-COMMENT. In the German universities, the student's drinking
code.

The _beer-comment_ of Heidelberg, which gives the student's code
of drinking, is about twice the length of our University book of
statutes.--_Lond. Quar. Rev._, Am. Ed., Vol. LXXIII. p. 56.


BEMOSSED HEAD. In the German universities, a student during the
sixth and last term, or _semester_, is called a _Bemossed Head_,
"the highest state of honor to which man can attain."--_Howitt_.

See MOSS-COVERED HEAD.


BENE. Latin, _well_. A word sometimes attached to a written
college exercise, by the instructor, as a mark of approbation.

When I look back upon my college life,
And think that I one starveling _bene_ got.
_Harvardiana_, Vol. III. p. 402.


BENE DISCESSIT. Latin; literally, _he has departed honorably_.
This phrase is used in the English universities to signify that
the student leaves his college to enter another by the express
consent and approbation of the Master and Fellows.--_Gradus ad
Cantab._

Mr. Pope being about to remove from Trinity to Emmanuel, by
_Bene-Discessit_, was desirous of taking my rooms.--_Alma Mater_,
Vol. I. p. 167.


BENEFICIARY. One who receives anything as a gift, or is maintained
by charity.--_Blackstone_.

In American colleges, students who are supported on established
foundations are called _beneficiaries_. Those who receive
maintenance from the American Education Society are especially
designated in this manner.

No student who is a college _beneficiary_ shall remain such any
longer than he shall continue exemplary for sobriety, diligence,
and orderly conduct.--_Laws of Univ. at Cam., Mass._, 1848, p. 19.


BEVER. From the Italian _bevere_, to drink. An intermediate
refreshment between breakfast and dinner.--_Morison_.

At Harvard College, dinner was formerly the only meal which was
regularly taken in the hall. Instead of breakfast and supper, the
students were allowed to receive a bowl of milk or chocolate, with
a piece of bread, from the buttery hatch, at morning and evening;
this they could eat in the yard, or take to their rooms and eat
there. At the appointed hour for _bevers_, there was a general
rush for the buttery, and if the walking happened to be bad, or if
it was winter, many ludicrous accidents usually occurred. One
perhaps would slip, his bowl would fly this way and his bread
that, while he, prostrate, afforded an excellent stumbling-block
to those immediately behind him; these, falling in their turn,
spattering with the milk themselves and all near them, holding
perhaps their spoons aloft, the only thing saved from the
destruction, would, after disentangling themselves from the mass
of legs, arms, etc., return to the buttery, and order a new bowl,
to be charged with the extras at the close of the term.

Similar in thought to this account are the remarks of Professor
Sidney Willard concerning Harvard College in 1794, in his late
work, entitled, "Memories of Youth and Manhood." "The students who
boarded in commons were obliged to go to the kitchen-door with
their bowls or pitchers for their suppers, when they received
their modicum of milk or chocolate in their vessel, held in one
hand, and their piece of bread in the other, and repaired to their
rooms to take their solitary repast. There were suspicions at
times that the milk was diluted by a mixture of a very common
tasteless fluid, which led a sagacious Yankee student to put the
matter to the test by asking the simple carrier-boy why his mother
did not mix the milk with warm water instead of cold. 'She does,'
replied the honest youth. This mode of obtaining evening commons
did not prove in all cases the most economical on the part of the
fed. It sometimes happened, that, from inadvertence or previous
preparation for a visit elsewhere, some individuals had arrayed
themselves in their dress-coats and breeches, and in their haste
to be served, and by jostling in the crowd, got sadly sprinkled
with milk or chocolate, either by accident or by the stealthy
indulgence of the mischievous propensities of those with whom they
came in contact; and oftentimes it was a scene of confusion that
was not the most pleasant to look upon or be engaged in. At
breakfast the students were furnished, in Commons Hall, with tea,
coffee, or milk, and a small loaf of bread. The age of a beaker of
beer with a certain allowance of bread had expired."--Vol. I. pp.
313, 314.

No scholar shall be absent above an hour at morning _bever_, half
an hour at evening _bever_, &c.--_Quincy's Hist. Harv. Univ._,
Vol. I. p. 517.

The butler is not bound to stay above half an hour at _bevers_ in
the buttery after the tolling of the bell.--_Ibid._, Vol. I. p.
584.


BEVER. To take a small repast between meals.--_Wallis_.


BIBLE CLERK. In the University of Oxford, the _Bible clerks_ are
required to attend the service of the chapel, and to deliver in a
list of the absent undergraduates to the officer appointed to
enforce the discipline of the institution. Their duties are
different in different colleges.--_Oxford Guide_.

A _Bible clerk_ has seldom too many friends in the
University.--_Blackwood's Mag._, Vol. LX., Eng. ed., p. 312.

In the University of Cambridge, Eng., "a very ancient scholarship,
so called because the student who was promoted to that office was
enjoined to read the Bible at meal-times."--_Gradus ad Cantab._


BIENNIAL EXAMINATION. At Yale College, in addition to the public
examinations of the classes at the close of each term, on the
studies of the term, private examinations are also held twice in
the college course, at the close of the Sophomore and Senior
years, on the studies of the two preceding years. The latter are
called _biennial_.--_Yale Coll. Cat._

"The _Biennial_," remarks the writer of the preface to the _Songs
of Yale_, "is an examination occurring twice during the
course,--at the close of the Sophomore and of the Senior
years,--in all the studies pursued during the two years previous.
It was established in 1850."--Ed. 1853, p. 4.

The system of examinations has been made more rigid, especially by
the introduction of _biennials_.--_Centennial Anniversary of the
Linonian Soc._, Yale Coll., 1853, p. 70.

Faculty of College got together one night,
To have a little congratulation,
For they'd put their heads together and hatched out a load,
And called it "_Bien. Examination_."
_Presentation Day Songs_, June 14, 1854.


BIG-WIG. In the English universities, the higher dignitaries among
the officers are often spoken of as the _big-wigs._

Thus having anticipated the approbation of all, whether Freshman,
Sophomore, Bachelor, or _Big-Wig_, our next care is the choice of
a patron.--_Pref._ to _Grad. ad Cantab._


BISHOP. At Cambridge, Eng., this beverage is compounded of
port-wine mulled and burnt, with the addenda of roasted lemons and
cloves.--_Gradus ad Cantab._

We'll pass round the _Bishop_, the spice-breathing cup.
_Will. Sentinel's Poems_.


BITCH. Among the students of the University of Cambridge, Eng., a
common name for tea.

The reading man gives no swell parties, runs very little into
debt, takes his cup of _bitch_ at night, and goes quietly to bed.
--_Grad. ad Cantab._, p. 131.

With the Queens-men it is not unusual to issue an "At home" Tea
and Vespers, alias _bitch_ and _hymns_.--_Ibid., Dedication_.


BITCH. At Cambridge, Eng., to take or drink a dish of tea.

I followed, and, having "_bitched_" (that is, taken a dish of tea)
arranged my books and boxes.--_Alma Mater_, Vol. I. p. 30.

I dined, wined, or _bitched_ with a Medallist or Senior Wrangler.
--_Ibid._, Vol. II. p. 218.

A young man, who performs with great dexterity the honors of the
tea-table, is, if complimented at all, said to be "an excellent
_bitch_."--_Gradus ad Cantab._, p. 18.


BLACK BOOK. In the English universities, a gloomy volume
containing a register of high crimes and misdemeanors.

At the University of Goettingen, the expulsion of students is
recorded on a _blackboard_.--_Gradus ad Cantab._

Sirrah, I'll have you put in the _black book_, rusticated,
expelled.--_Miller's Humors of Oxford_, Act II. Sc. I.

All had reason to fear that their names were down in the proctor's
_black book_.--_Collegian's Guide_, p. 277.

So irksome and borish did I ever find this early rising, spite of
the health it promised, that I was constantly in the _black book_
of the dean.--_Alma Mater_, Vol. I. p. 32.


BLACK-HOOD HOUSE. See SENATE.


BLACK RIDING. At the College of South Carolina, it has until
within a few years been customary for the students, disguised and
painted black, to ride across the college-yard at midnight, on
horseback, with vociferations and the sound of horns. _Black
riding_ is recognized by the laws of the College as a very high
offence, punishable with expulsion.


BLEACH. At Harvard College, he was formerly said to _bleach_ who
preferred to be _spiritually_ rather than _bodily_ present at
morning prayers.

'T is sweet Commencement parts to reach,
But, oh! 'tis doubly sweet to _bleach_.
_Harvardiana_, Vol. III. p. 123.


BLOOD. A hot spark; a man of spirit; a rake. A word long in use
among collegians and by writers who described them.

With some rakes from Boston and a few College _bloods_, I got very
drunk.--_Monthly Anthology_, Boston, 1804, Vol. I. p. 154.

Indulgent Gods! exclaimed our _bloods_.
_The Crayon_, Yale Coll., 1823, p. 15.


BLOOD. At some of the Western colleges this word signifies
excellent; as, a _blood_ recitation. A student who recites well is
said to _make a blood_.


BLOODEE. In the Farmer's Weekly Museum, formerly printed at
Walpole, N.H., appeared August 21, 1797, a poetic production, in
which occurred these lines:--

Seniors about to take degrees,
Not by their wits, but by _bloodees_.

In a note the word _bloodee_ was thus described: "A kind of cudgel
worn, or rather borne, by the bloods of a certain college in New
England, 2 feet 5 inches in length, and 1-7/8 inch in diameter,
with a huge piece of lead at one end, emblematical of its owner. A
pretty prop for clumsy travellers on Parnassus."


BLOODY. Formerly a college term for daring, rowdy, impudent.

Arriving at Lord Bibo's study,
They thought they'd be a little _bloody_;
So, with a bold, presumptuous look,
An honest pinch of snuff they took.
_Rebelliad_, p. 44.

They roar'd and bawl'd, and were so _bloody_,
As to besiege Lord Bibo's study.

_Ibid._, p. 76.


BLOW. A merry frolic with drinking; a spree. A person intoxicated
is said to be _blown_, and Mr. Halliwell, in his Dict. Arch. and
Prov. Words, has _blowboll_, a drunkard.

This word was formerly used by students to designate their frolics
and social gatherings; at present, it is not much heard, being
supplanted by the more common words _spree_, _tight_, &c.

My fellow-students had been engaged at a _blow_ till the stagehorn
had summoned them to depart.--_Harvard Register_, 1827-28, p. 172.

No soft adagio from the muse of _blows_,
E'er roused indignant from serene repose.
_Ibid._, p. 233.

And, if no coming _blow_ his thoughts engage,
Lights candle and cigar.
_Ibid._, p. 235.

The person who engages in a blow is also called a _blow_.

I could see, in the long vista of the past, the many hardened
_blows_ who had rioted here around the festive
board.--_Collegian_, p. 231.


BLUE. In several American colleges, a student who is very strict
in observing the laws, and conscientious in performing his duties,
is styled a _blue_. "Our real delvers, midnight students," says a
correspondent from Williams College, "are called _blue_."

I wouldn't carry a novel into chapel to read, not out of any
respect for some people's old-womanish twaddle about the
sacredness of the place,--but because some of the _blues_ might
see you.--_Yale Lit. Mag._, Vol. XV. p. 81.

Each jolly soul of them, save the _blues_,
Were doffing their coats, vests, pants, and shoes.
_Yale Gallinipper_, Nov. 1848.

None ever knew a sober "_blue_"
In this "blood crowd" of ours.
_Yale Tomahawk_, Nov. 1849.

Lucian called him a _blue_, and fell back in his chair in a
pouting fit.--_The Dartmouth_, Vol. IV. p. 118.

To acquire popularity,... he must lose his money at bluff and
euchre without a sigh, and damn up hill and down the sober
church-going man, as an out-and-out _blue_.--_The Parthenon, Union
Coll._, 1851, p. 6.


BLUE-LIGHT. At the University of Vermont this term is used, writes
a correspondent, to designate "a boy who sneaks about college, and
reports to the Faculty the short-comings of his fellow-students. A
_blue-light_ is occasionally found watching the door of a room
where a party of jolly ones are roasting a turkey (which in
justice belongs to the nearest farm-house), that he may go to the
Faculty with the story, and tell them who the boys are."

BLUES. The name of a party which formerly existed at Dartmouth
College. In The Dartmouth, Vol. IV. p. 117, 1842, is the
following:--"The students here are divided into two parties,--the
_Rowes_ and the _Blues_. The Rowes are very liberal in their
notions; the _Blues_ more strict. The Rowes don't pretend to say
anything worse of a fellow than to call him a Blue, and _vice
versa_"

See INDIGO and ROWES.


BLUE-SKIN. This word was formerly in use at some American
colleges, with the meaning now given to the word BLUE, q.v.

I, with my little colleague here,
Forth issued from my cell,
To see if we could overhear,
Or make some _blue-skin_ tell.
_The Crayon_, Yale Coll., 1823, p. 22.


BOARD. The _boards_, or _college boards_, in the English
universities, are long wooden tablets on which the names of the
members of each college are inscribed, according to seniority,
generally hung up in the buttery.--_Gradus ad Cantab. Webster_.

I gave in my resignation this time without recall, and took my
name off the _boards_.--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ._,
Ed. 2d, p. 291.

Similar to this was the list of students which was formerly kept
at Harvard College, and probably at Yale. Judge Wingate, who
graduated at the former institution in 1759, writes as follows in
reference to this subject:--"The Freshman Class was, in my day at
college, usually _placed_ (as it was termed) within six or nine
months after their admission. The official notice of this was
given by having their names written in a large German text, in a
handsome style, and placed in a conspicuous part of the College
Buttery, where the names of the four classes of undergraduates
were kept suspended until they left College. If a scholar was
expelled, his name was taken from its place; or if he was degraded
(which was considered the next highest punishment to expulsion),
it was moved accordingly."--_Peirce's Hist. Harv. Univ._, p. 311.


BOGS. Among English Cantabs, a privy.--_Gradus ad Cantab._


BOHN. A translation; a pony. The volumes of Bohn's Classical
Library are in such general use among undergraduates in American
colleges, that _Bohn_ has come to be a common name for a
translation.

'Twas plenty of skin with a good deal of _Bohn_.
_Songs, Biennial Jubilee_, Yale Coll., 1855.


BOLT. An omission of a recitation or lecture. A correspondent from
Union College gives the following account of it:--"In West
College, where the Sophomores and Freshmen congregate, when there
was a famous orator expected, or any unusual spectacle to be
witnessed in the city, we would call a 'class meeting,' to
consider upon the propriety of asking Professor ---- for a _bolt_.
We had our chairman, and the subject being debated, was generally
decided in favor of the remission. A committee of good steady
fellows were selected, who forthwith waited upon the Professor,
and, after urging the matter, commonly returned with the welcome
assurance that we could have a _bolt_ from the next recitation."

One writer defines a _bolt_ in these words:--"The promiscuous
stampede of a class collectively. Caused generally by a few
seconds' tardiness of the Professor, occasionally by finding the
lock of the recitation-room door filled with shot."--_Sophomore
Independent_, Union College, Nov. 1854.

The quiet routine of college life had remained for some days
undisturbed, even by a single _bolt_.--_Williams Quarterly_, Vol.
II. p. 192.


BOLT. At Union College, to be absent from a recitation, on the
conditions related under the noun BOLT. Followed by _from_. At
Williams College, the word is applied with a different
signification. A correspondent writes: "We sometimes _bolt_ from a
recitation before the Professor arrives, and the term most
strikingly suggests the derivation, as our movements in the case
would somewhat resemble a 'streak of lightning,'--a
thunder-_bolt_."


BOLTER. At Union College, one who _bolts_ from a recitation.

2. A correspondent from the same college says: "If a student is
unable to answer a question in the class, and declares himself
unprepared, he also is a '_bolter_.'"


BONFIRE. The making of bonfires, by students, is not an unfrequent
occurrence at many of our colleges, and is usually a demonstration
of dissatisfaction, or is done merely for the sake of the
excitement. It is accounted a high offence, and at Harvard College
is prohibited by the following law:--"In case of a bonfire, or
unauthorized fireworks or illumination, any students crying fire,
sounding an alarm, leaving their rooms, shouting or clapping from
the windows, going to the fire or being seen at it, going into the
college yard, or assembling on account of such bonfire, shall be
deemed aiding and abetting such disorder, and punished
accordingly."--_Laws_, 1848, _Bonfires_.

A correspondent from Bowdoin College writes: "Bonfires occur
regularly twice a year; one on the night preceding the annual
State Fast, and the other is built by the Freshmen on the night
following the yearly examination. A pole some sixty or seventy
feet long is raised, around which brush and tar are heaped to a
great height. The construction of the pile occupies from four to
five hours."

Not ye, whom midnight cry ne'er urged to run
In search of fire, when fire there had been none;
Unless, perchance, some pump or hay-mound threw
Its _bonfire_ lustre o'er a jolly crew.
_Harvard Register_, p. 233.


BOOK-KEEPER. At Harvard College, students are allowed to go out of
town on Saturday, after the exercises, but are required, if not at
evening prayers, to enter their names before 10 P.M. with one of
the officers appointed for that purpose. Students were formerly
required to report themselves before 8 P.M., in winter, and 9, in
summer, and the person who registered the names was a member of
the Freshman Class, and was called the _book-keeper_.

I strode over the bridge, with a rapidity which grew with my
vexation, my distaste for wind, cold, and wet, and my anxiety to
reach my goal ere the hour appointed should expire, and the
_book-keeper's_ light should disappear from his window;
"For while his light holds out to burn,
The vilest sinner may return."--_Collegian_, p. 225.

See FRESHMAN, COLLEGE.


BOOK-WORK. Among students at Cambridge, Eng., all mathematics that
can be learned verbatim from books,--all that are not
problems.--_Bristed_.

He made a good fight of it, and ... beat the Trinity man a little
on the _book-work_.--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed.
2d, p. 96.

The men are continually writing out _book-work_, either at home or
in their tutor's rooms.--_Ibid._, p. 149.


BOOT-FOX. This name was at a former period given, in the German
universities, to a fox, or a student in his first half-year, from
the fact of his being required to black the boots of his more
advanced comrades.


BOOTLICK. To fawn upon; to court favor.

Scorns the acquaintance of those he deems beneath him; refuses to
_bootlick_ men for their votes.--_The Parthenon_, Union Coll.,
Vol. I. p. 6.

The "Wooden Spoon" exhibition passed off without any such hubbub,
except where the pieces were of such a character as to offend the
delicacy and modesty of some of those crouching, fawning,
_bootlicking_ hypocrites.--_The Gallinipper_, Dec. 1849.


BOOTLICKER. A student who seeks or gains favor from a teacher by
flattery or officious civilities; one who curries favor. A
correspondent from Union College writes: "As you watch the
students more closely, you will perhaps find some of them
particularly officious towards your teacher, and very apt to
linger after recitation to get a clearer knowledge of some
passage. They are _Bootlicks_, and that is known as _Bootlicking_;
a reproach, I am sorry to say, too indiscriminately applied." At
Yale, and _other colleges_, a tutor or any other officer who
informs against the students, or acts as a spy upon their conduct,
is also called a _bootlick_.

Three or four _bootlickers_ rise.--_Yale Banger_, Oct. 1848.

The rites of Wooden Spoons we next recite,
When _bootlick_ hypocrites upraised their might.
_Ibid._, Nov. 1849.

Then he arose, and offered himself as a "_bootlick_" to the
Faculty.--_Yale Battery_, Feb. 14, 1850.


BOOTS. At the College of South Carolina it is customary to present
the most unpopular member of a class with a pair of handsome
red-topped boots, on which is inscribed the word BEAUTY. They were
formerly given to the ugliest person, whence the inscription.


BORE. A tiresome person or unwelcome visitor, who makes himself
obnoxious by his disagreeable manners, or by a repetition of
visits.--_Bartlett_.

A person or thing that wearies by iteration.--_Webster_.

Although the use of this word is very general, yet it is so
peculiarly applicable to the many annoyances to which a collegian
is subjected, that it has come by adoption to be, to a certain
extent, a student term. One writer classes under this title
"text-books generally; the Professor who marks _slight_ mistakes;
the familiar young man who calls continually, and when he finds
the door fastened demonstrates his verdant curiosity by revealing
an inquisitive countenance through the ventilator."--_Sophomore
Independent_, Union College, Nov. 1854.

In college parlance, prayers, when the morning is cold or rainy,
are a _bore_; a hard lesson is a _bore_; a dull lecture or
lecturer is a _bore_; and, _par excellence_, an unwelcome visitor
is a _bore_ of _bores_. This latter personage is well described in
the following lines:--

"Next comes the bore, with visage sad and pale,
And tortures you with some lugubrious tale;
Relates stale jokes collected near and far,
And in return expects a choice cigar;
Your brandy-punch he calls the merest sham,
Yet does not _scruple_ to partake a _dram_.
His prying eyes your secret nooks explore;
No place is sacred to the college bore.
Not e'en the letter filled with Helen's praise,
Escapes the sight of his unhallowed gaze;
Ere one short hour its silent course has flown,
Your Helen's charms to half the class are known.
Your books he takes, nor deigns your leave to ask,
Such forms to him appear a useless task.
When themes unfinished stare you in the face,
Then enters one of this accursed race.
Though like the Angel bidding John to write,
Frail ------ form uprises to thy sight,
His stupid stories chase your thoughts away,
And drive you mad with his unwelcome stay.
When he, departing, creaks the closing door,
You raise the Grecian chorus, [Greek: kikkabau]."[02]
_MS. Poem_, F.E. Felton, Harv. Coll.


BOS. At the University of Virginia, the desserts which the
students, according to the statutes of college, are allowed twice
per week, are respectively called the _Senior_ and _Junior Bos_.


BOSH. Nonsense, trash, [Greek: phluaria]. An English Cantab's
expression.--_Bristed_.

But Spriggins's peculiar forte is that kind of talk which some
people irreverently call "_bosh_."--_Yale Lit. Mag._, Vol. XX. p.
259.


BOSKY. In the cant of the Oxonians, being tipsy.--_Grose_.

Now when he comes home fuddled, alias _Bosky_, I shall not be so
unmannerly as to say his Lordship ever gets drunk.--_The Sizar_,
cited in _Gradus ad Cantab._, pp. 20, 21.


BOWEL. At Harvard College, a student in common parlance will
express his destitution or poverty by saying, "I have not a
_bowel_." The use of the word with this signification has arisen,
probably, from a jocular reference to a quaint Scriptural
expression.