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

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BUSY. An answer often given by a student, when he does not wish to
see visitors.

Poor Croak was almost annihilated by this summons, and, clinging
to the bed-clothes in all the agony of despair, forgot to _busy_
his midnight visitor.--_Harv. Reg._, p. 84.

Whenever, during that sacred season, a knock salutes my door, I
respond with a _busy_.--_Collegian_, p. 25.

"_Busy_" is a hard word to utter, often, though heart and
conscience and the college clock require it.--_Scenes and
Characters in College_, p. 58.

BUTLER. Anciently written BOTILER. A servant or officer whose
principal business is to take charge of the liquors, food, plate,
&c. In the old laws of Harvard College we find an enumeration of
the duties of the college butler. Some of them were as follows.

He was to keep the rooms and utensils belonging to his office
sweet and clean, fit for use; his drinking-vessels were to be
scoured once a week. The fines imposed by the President and other
officers were to be fairly recorded by him in a book, kept for
that purpose. He was to attend upon the ringing of the bell for
prayer in the hall, and for lectures and commons. Providing
candles for the hall was a part of his duty. He was obliged to
keep the Buttery supplied, at his own expense, with beer, cider,
tea, coffee, chocolate, sugar, biscuit, butter, cheese, pens, ink,
paper, and such other articles as the President or Corporation
ordered or permitted; "but no permission," it is added in the
laws, "shall be given for selling wine, distilled spirits, or
foreign fruits, on credit or for ready money." He was allowed to
advance twenty per cent. on the net cost of the articles sold by
him, excepting beer and cider, which were stated quarterly by the
President and Tutors. The Butler was allowed a Freshman to assist
him, for an account of whom see under FRESHMAN,
BUTLER'S.--_Peirce's Hist. Harv. Univ._, App., pp. 138, 139. _Laws
Harv. Coll._, 1798, pp. 60-62.

President Woolsey, in his Historical Discourse pronounced before
the Graduates of Yale College, August 14th, 1850, remarks as
follows concerning the Butler, in connection with that
institution:--

"The classes since 1817, when the office of Butler was, abolished,
are probably but little aware of the meaning of that singular
appendage to the College, which had been in existence a hundred
years. To older graduates, the lower front corner room of the old
middle college in the south entry must even now suggest many
amusing recollections. The Butler was a graduate of recent
standing, and, being invested with rather delicate functions, was
required to be one in whom confidence might be reposed. Several of
the elder graduates who have filled this office are here to-day,
and can explain, better than I can, its duties and its bearings
upon the interests of College. The chief prerogative of the Butler
was to have the monopoly of certain eatables, drinkables, and
other articles desired by students. The Latin laws of 1748 give
him leave to sell in the buttery, cider, metheglin, strong beer to
the amount of not more than twelve barrels annually,--which amount
as the College grew was increased to twenty,--together with
loaf-sugar ('saccharum rigidum'), pipes, tobacco, and such
necessaries of scholars as were not furnished in the commons hall.
Some of these necessaries were books and stationery, but certain
fresh fruits also figured largely in the Butler's supply. No
student might buy cider or beer elsewhere. The Butler, too, had
the care of the bell, and was bound to wait upon the President or
a Tutor, and notify him of the time for prayers. He kept the book
of fines, which, as we shall see, was no small task. He
distributed the bread and beer provided by the Steward in the Hall
into equal portions, and had the lost commons, for which privilege
he paid a small annual sum. He was bound, in consideration of the
profits of his monopoly, to provide candles at college prayers and
for a time to pay also fifty shillings sterling into the treasury.
The more menial part of these duties he performed by his
waiter."--pp. 43, 44.

At both Harvard and Yale the students were restricted in expending
money at the Buttery, being allowed at the former "to contract a
debt" of five dollars a quarter; at the latter, of one dollar and
twenty-five cents per month.

BUTTER. A size or small portion of butter. "Send me a roll and two
Butters."--_Grad. ad Cantab._

Six cheeses, three _butters_, and two beers.--_The Collegian's
Guide_.

Pertinent to this singular use of the word, is the following
curious statement. At Cambridge, Eng., "there is a market every
day in the week, except Monday, for vegetables, poultry, eggs, and
butter. The sale of the last article is attended with the
peculiarity of every pound designed for the market being rolled
out to the length of a yard; each pound being in that state about
the thickness of a walking-cane. This practice, which is confined
to Cambridge, is particularly convenient, as it renders the butter
extremely easy of division into small portions, called _sizes_, as
used in the Colleges."--_Camb. Guide_, Ed. 1845, p. 213.

BUTTERY. An apartment in a house where butter, milk, provisions,
and utensils are kept. In some colleges, a room where liquors,
fruit, and refreshments are kept for sale to the
students.--_Webster_.

Of the Buttery, Mr. Peirce, in his History of Harvard University,
speaks as follows: "As the Commons rendered the College
independent of private boarding-houses, so the _Buttery_ removed
all just occasion for resorting to the different marts of luxury,
intemperance, and ruin. This was a kind of supplement to the
Commons, and offered for sale to the students, at a moderate
advance on the cost, wines, liquors, groceries, stationery, and,
in general, such articles as it was proper and necessary for them
to have occasionally, and which for the most part were not
included in the Commons' fare. The Buttery was also an office,
where, among other things, records were kept of the times when the
scholars were present and absent. At their admission and
subsequent returns they entered their names in the Buttery, and
took them out whenever they had leave of absence. The Butler, who
was a graduate, had various other duties to perform, either by
himself or by his _Freshman_, as ringing the bell, seeing that the
Hall was kept clean, &c., and was allowed a salary, which, after
1765, was L60 per annum."--_Hist. Harv. Univ._, p. 220.

With particular reference to the condition of Harvard College a
few years prior to the Revolution, Professor Sidney Willard
observes: "The Buttery was in part a sort of appendage to Commons,
where the scholars could eke out their short commons with sizings
of gingerbread and pastry, or needlessly or injuriously cram
themselves to satiety, as they had been accustomed to be crammed
at home by their fond mothers. Besides eatables, everything
necessary for a student was there sold, and articles used in the
play-grounds, as bats, balls, &c.; and, in general, a petty trade
with small profits was carried on in stationery and other matters,
--in things innocent or suitable for the young customers, and in
some things, perhaps, which were not. The Butler had a small
salary, and was allowed the service of a Freshman in the Buttery,
who was also employed to ring the college bell for prayers,
lectures, and recitations, and take some oversight of the public
rooms under the Butler's directions. The Buttery was also the
office of record of the names of undergraduates, and of the rooms
assigned to them in the college buildings; of the dates of
temporary leave of absence given to individuals, and of their
return; and of fines inflicted by the immediate government for
negligence or minor offences. The office was dropped or abolished
in the first year of the present century, I believe, long after it
ceased to be of use for most of its primary purposes. The area
before the entry doors of the Buttery had become a sort of
students' exchange for idle gossip, if nothing worse. The rooms
were now redeemed from traffic, and devoted to places of study,
and other provision was made for the records which had there been
kept. The last person who held the office of Butler was Joseph
Chickering, a graduate of 1799."--_Memories of Youth and Manhood_,
1855, Vol. I. pp. 31, 32.

President Woolsey, in his Historical Discourse pronounced before
the Graduates of Yale College, August 14th, 1850, makes the
following remarks on this subject: "The original motives for
setting up a buttery in colleges seem to have been, to put the
trade in articles which appealed to the appetite into safe hands;
to ascertain how far students were expensive in their habits, and
prevent them from running into debt; and finally, by providing a
place where drinkables of not very stimulating qualities were
sold, to remove the temptation of going abroad after spirituous
liquors. Accordingly, laws were passed limiting the sum for which
the Butler might give credit to a student, authorizing the
President to inspect his books, and forbidding him to sell
anything except permitted articles for ready money. But the whole
system, as viewed from our position as critics of the past, must
be pronounced a bad one. It rather tempted the student to
self-indulgence by setting up a place for the sale of things to
eat and drink within the College walls, than restrained him by
bringing his habits under inspection. There was nothing to prevent
his going abroad in quest of stronger drinks than could be bought
at the buttery, when once those which were there sold ceased to
allay his thirst. And a monopoly, such as the Butler enjoyed of
certain articles, did not tend to lower their price, or to remove
suspicion that they were sold at a higher rate than free
competition would assign to them."--pp. 44, 45.

"When," says the Gradus ad Cantabrigiam, "the 'punishment
obscene,' as Cowper, the poet, very properly terms it, of
_flagellation_, was enforced at our University, it appears that
the Buttery was the scene of action. In The Poor Scholar, a
comedy, written by Robert Nevile, Fellow of King's College in
Cambridge, London, 1662, one of the students having lost his gown,
which is picked up by the President of the College, the tutor
says, 'If we knew the owner, we 'd take him down to th' Butterie,
and give him due correction.' To which the student, (_aside_,)
'Under correction, Sir; if you're for the Butteries with me, I'll
lie as close as Diogenes in dolio. I'll creep in at the bunghole,
before I'll _mount a barrel_,' &c. (Act II. Sc. 6.)--Again: 'Had I
been once i' th' Butteries, they'd have their rods about me. But
let us, for joy that I'm escaped, go to the Three Tuns and drink
a pint of wine, and laugh away our cares.--'T is drinking at the
Tuns that keeps us from ascending Buttery barrels,' &c." By a
reference to the word PUNISHMENT, it will be seen that, in the
older American colleges, corporal punishment was inflicted upon
disobedient students in a manner much more solemn and imposing,
the students and officers usually being present.

The effect of _crossing the name in the buttery_ is thus stated in
the Collegian's Guide. "To keep a term requires residence in the
University for a certain number of days within a space of time
known by the calendar, and the books of the buttery afford the
appointed proof of residence; it being presumed that, if neither
bread, butter, pastry, beer, or even toast and water (which is
charged one farthing), are entered on the buttery books in a given
name, the party could not have been resident that day. Hence the
phrase of 'eating one's way into the church or to a doctor's
degree.' Supposing, for example, twenty-one days' residence is
required between the first of May and the twenty-fourth inclusive,
then there will be but three days to spare; consequently, should
our names be crossed for more than three days in all in that term,
--say for four days,--the other twenty days would not count, and
the term would be irrecoverably lost. Having our names crossed in
the buttery, therefore, is a punishment which suspends our
collegiate existence while the cross remains, besides putting an
embargo on our pudding, beer, bread and cheese, milk, and butter;
for these articles come out of the buttery."--p. 157.

These remarks apply both to the Universities of Oxford and
Cambridge; but in the latter the phrase _to be put out of commons_
is used instead of the one given above, yet with the same meaning.
See _Gradus ad Cantabrigiam_, p. 32.

The following extract from the laws of Harvard College, passed in
1734, shows that this term was formerly used in that institution:
"No scholar shall be _put in or out of Commons_, but on Tuesdays
or Fridays, and no Bachelor or Undergraduate, but by a note from
the President, or one of the Tutors (if an Undergraduate, from his
own Tutor, if in town); and when any Bachelors or Undergraduates
have been out of Commons, the waiters, at their respective tables,
shall, on the first Tuesday or Friday after they become obliged by
the preceding law to be in Commons, _put them into Commons_ again,
by note, after the manner above directed. And if any Master
neglects to put himself into Commons, when, by the preceding law,
he is obliged to be in Commons, the waiters on the Masters' table
shall apply to the President or one of the Tutors for a note to
put him into Commons, and inform him of it."

Be mine each morn, with eager appetite
And hunger undissembled, to repair
To friendly _Buttery_; there on smoking Crust
And foaming Ale to banquet unrestrained,
Material breakfast!
_The Student_, 1750, Vol. I. p. 107.

BUTTERY-BOOK. In colleges, a book kept at the _buttery_, in which
was charged the prices of such articles as were sold to the
students. There was also kept a list of the fines imposed by the
president and professors, and an account of the times when the
students were present and absent, together with a register of the
names of all the members of the college.

My name in sure recording page
Shall time itself o'erpower,
If no rude mice with envious rage
The _buttery-books_ devour.
_The Student_, Vol. I. p. 348.

BUTTERY-HATCH. A half-door between the buttery or kitchen and the
hall, in colleges and old mansions. Also called a
_buttery-bar_.--_Halliwell's Arch. and Prov. Words_.

If any scholar or scholars at any time take away or detain any
vessel of the colleges, great or small, from the hall out of the
doors from the sight of the _buttery-hatch_ without the butler's
or servitor's knowledge, or against their will, he or they shall
be punished three pence.--_Quincy's Hist. Harv. Coll._, Vol. I. p.
584.

He (the college butler) domineers over Freshmen, when they first
come to the _hatch_.--_Earle's Micro-cosmographie_, 1628, Char.
17.

There was a small ledging or bar on this hatch to rest the
tankards on.

I pray you, bring your hand to the _buttery-bar_, and let it
drink.--_Twelfth Night_, Act I. Sc. 3.

BYE-FELLOW. In England, a name given in certain cases to a fellow
in an inferior college. At the University of Cambridge, Eng., a
bye-fellow can be elected to one of the regular fellowships when a
vacancy occurs.

BYE-FELLOWSHIP. An inferior establishment in a college for the
nominal maintenance of what is called a _bye-fellow_, or a fellow
out of the regular course.

The emoluments of the fellowships vary from a merely nominal
income, in the case of what are called _Bye-fellowships_, to
$2,000 per annum.--_Literary World_, Vol. XII. p. 285.

BYE-FOUNDATION. In the English universities, a foundation from
which an insignificant income and an inferior maintenance are
derived.

BYE-TERM. In the University of Cambridge, Eng., students who take
the degree of B.A. at any other time save January, are said to
"_go out in a bye-term_."

Bristed uses this word, as follows: "I had a double
disqualification exclusive of illness. First, as a Fellow
Commoner.... Secondly, as a _bye-term man_, or one between two
years. Although I had entered into residence at the same time with
those men who were to go out in 1844, my name had not been placed
on the College Books, like theirs, previously to the commencement
of 1840. I had therefore lost a term, and for most purposes was
considered a Freshman, though I had been in residence as long as
any of the Junior Sophs. In fact, I was _between two
years_."--_Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, pp. 97, 98.

_C_.

CAD. A low fellow, nearly equivalent to _snob_. Used among
students in the University of Cambridge, Eng.--_Bristed_.

CAHOOLE. At the University of North Carolina, this word in its
application is almost universal, but generally signifies to
cajole, to wheedle, to deceive, to procure.

CALENDAR. At the English universities the information which in
American colleges is published in a catalogue, is contained in a
similar but far more comprehensive work, called a _calendar_.
Conversation based on the topics of which such a volume treats is
in some localities denominated _calendar_.

"Shop," or, as it is sometimes here called, "_Calendar_,"
necessarily enters to a large extent into the conversation of the
Cantabs.--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 82.

I would lounge about into the rooms of those whom I knew for
general literary conversation,--even to talk _Calendar_ if there
was nothing else to do.--_Ibid._, p. 120.

CALVIN'S FOLLY. At the University of Vermont, "this name," writes
a correspondent, "is given to a door, four inches thick and
closely studded with spike-nails, dividing the chapel hall from
the staircase leading to the belfry. It is called _Calvin's
Folly_, because it was planned by a professor of that (Christian)
name, in order to keep the students out of the belfry, which
dignified scheme it has utterly failed to accomplish. It is one of
the celebrities of the Old Brick Mill,[04] and strangers always
see it and hear its history."

CAMEL. In Germany, a student on entering the university becomes a
_Kameel_,--a camel.

CAMPUS. At the College of New Jersey, the college yard is
denominated the _Campus_. _Back Campus_, the privies.

CANTAB. Abridged for CANTABRIGIAN.

It was transmitted to me by a respectable _Cantab_ for insertion.
--_Hone's Every-day Book_, Vol. I. p. 697.

Should all this be a mystery to our uncollegiate friends, or even
to many matriculated _Cantabs_, we advise them not to attempt to
unriddle it.--_Harvardiana_, Vol. III. p. 39.

CANTABRIGIAN. A student or graduate of the University of
Cambridge, Eng. Used also at Cambridge, Mass., of the students and
inhabitants.

CANTABRIGICALLY. According to Cambridge.

To speak _Cantabrigically_.--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng.
Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 28.

CAP. The cap worn by students at the University of Cambridge,
Eng., is described by Bristed in the following passage: "You must
superadd the academical costume. This consists of a gown, varying
in color and ornament according to the wearer's college and rank,
but generally black, not unlike an ordinary clerical gown, and a
square-topped cap, which fits close to the head like a truncated
helmet, while the covered board which forms the crown measures
about a foot diagonally across."--_Five Years in an Eng. Univ._,
Ed. 2d, p. 4.

A similar cap is worn at Oxford and at some American colleges on
particular occasions.

See OXFORD.

CAP. To uncover the head in reverence or civility.

The youth, ignorant who they were, had omitted to _cap_
them.--_Gent. Mag._, Vol. XXIV. p. 567.

I could not help smiling, when, among the dignitaries whom I was
bound to make obeisance to by _capping_ whenever I met them, Mr.
Jackson's catalogue included his all-important self in the number.
--_The Etonian_, Vol. II. p. 217.

The obsequious attention of college servants, and the more
unwilling "_capping_" of the undergraduates, to such a man are
real luxuries.--_Blackwood's Mag._, Eng. ed., Vol. LVI. p. 572.

Used in the English universities.

CAPTAIN OF THE POLL. The first of the Polloi.

He had moreover been _Captain_ (Head) _of the Poll_.--_Bristed's
Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 96.

CAPUT SENATUS. Latin; literally, _the head of the Senate_. In
Cambridge, Eng., a council of the University by which every grace
must be approved, before it can be submitted to the senate. The
Caput Senatus is formed of the vice-chancellor, a doctor in each
of the faculties of divinity, law, and medicine, and one regent
M.A., and one non-regent M.A. The vice-chancellor's five
assistants are elected annually by the heads of houses and the
doctors of the three faculties, out of fifteen persons nominated
by the vice-chancellor and the proctors.--_Webster. Cam. Cal. Lit.
World_, Vol. XII. p. 283.

See GRACE.

CARCER. Latin. In German schools and universities, a
prison.--_Adler's Germ, and Eng. Dict._

Wollten ihn drauf die Nuernberger Herren
Mir nichts, dir nichts ins _Carcer_ sperren.
_Wallenstein's Lager_.

And their Nur'mberg worships swore he should go
To _jail_ for his pains,--if he liked it, or no.
_Trans. Wallenstein's Camp, in Bohn's Stand. Lib._, p. 155.

CASTLE END. At Cambridge, Eng., a noted resort for Cyprians.

CATHARINE PURITANS. In the University of Cambridge, Eng., the
members of St. Catharine's Hall are thus designated, from the
implied derivation of the word Catharine from the Greek [Greek:
katharos], pure.

CAUTION MONEY. In the English universities, a deposit in the hands
of the tutor at entrance, by way of security.

With reference to Oxford, De Quincey says of _caution money_:
"This is a small sum, properly enough demanded of every student,
when matriculated, as a pledge for meeting any loss from unsettled
arrears, such as his sudden death or his unannounced departure
might else continually be inflicting upon his college. In most
colleges it amounts to L25; in one only it was considerably less."
--_Life and Manners_, p. 249.

In American colleges, a bond is usually given by a student upon
entering college, in order to secure the payment of all his
college dues.

CENSOR. In the University of Oxford, Eng., a college officer whose
duties are similar to those of the Dean.

CEREVIS. From Latin _cerevisia_, beer. Among German students, a
small, round, embroidered cap, otherwise called a beer-cap.

Better authorities ... have lately noted in the solitary student
that wends his way--_cerevis_ on head, note-book in hand--to the
professor's class-room,... a vast improvement on the _Bursche_ of
twenty years ago.--_Lond. Quart. Rev._, Am. ed., Vol. LXXIII. p.
59.

CHAMBER. The apartment of a student at a college or university.
This word, although formerly used in American colleges, has been
of late almost entirely supplanted by the word _room_, and it is
for this reason that it is here noticed.

If any of them choose to provide themselves with breakfasts in
their own _chambers_, they are allowed so to do, but not to
breakfast in one another's _chambers_.--_Quincy's Hist. Harv.
Univ._, Vol. II. p. 116.

Some ringleaders gave up their _chambers_.--_Ibid._, Vol. II. p.
116.

CHAMBER-MATE. One who inhabits the same room or chamber with
another. Formerly used at our colleges. The word CHUM is now very
generally used in its place; sometimes _room-mate_ is substituted.

If any one shall refuse to find his proportion of furniture, wood,
and candles, the President and Tutors shall charge such
delinquent, in his quarter bills, his full proportion, which sum
shall be paid to his _chamber-mate_.--_Laws Harv. Coll._, 1798, p.
35.

CHANCELLOR. The chancellor of a university is an officer who seals
the diplomas, or letters of degree, &c. The Chancellor of Oxford
is usually one of the prime nobility, elected by the students in
convocation; and he holds the office for life. He is the chief
magistrate in the government of the University. The Chancellor of
Cambridge is also elected from among the prime nobility. The
office is biennial, or tenable for such a length of time beyond
two years as the tacit consent of the University may choose to
allow.--_Webster. Cam. Guide_.

"The Chancellor," says the Oxford Guide, "is elected by
convocation, and his office is for life; but he never, according
to usage, is allowed to set foot in this University, excepting on
the occasion of his installation, or when he is called upon to
accompany any royal visitors."--Ed. 1847, p. xi.

At Cambridge, the office of Chancellor is, except on rare
occasions, purely honorary, and the Chancellor himself seldom
appears at Cambridge. He is elected by the Senate.

2. At Trinity College, Hartford, the _Chancellor_ is the Bishop of
the Diocese of Connecticut, and is also the Visitor of the
College. He is _ex officio_ the President of the
Corporation.--_Calendar Trin. Coll._, 1850, pp. 6, 7.

CHAPEL. A house for public worship, erected separate from a
church. In England, chapels in the universities are places of
worship belonging to particular colleges. The chapels connected
with the colleges in the United States are used for the same
purpose. Religious exercises are usually held in them twice a day,
morning and evening, besides the services on the Sabbath.

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