A Collection of College Words and Customs Part 24

I have a most instinctive dread Of getting up to _take a dead_, Unworthy degradation!--_Harv. Reg._, p. 312.

DEAD-SET. The same as a DEAD, which see.

Now's the day and now's the hour; See approach Old Sikes's power; See the front of Logic lower; Screws, _dead-sets_, and fines.--_Rebelliad_, p. 52.

Grose has this word in his Slang Dictionary, and defines it "a concerted scheme to defraud a person by gaming." "This phrase,"

says Bartlett, in his Dictionary of Americanisms, "seems to be taken from the lifeless att.i.tude of a pointer in marking his game."

"The lifeless att.i.tude" seems to be the only point of resemblance between the above definitions, and the appearance of one who is _taking a dead set_. The word has of late years been displaced by the more general use of the word _dead_, with the same meaning.

The phrase _to be at a dead-set_, implying a fixed state or condition which precludes further progress, is in general use.

DEAN. An officer in each college of the universities in England, whose duties consist in the due preservation of the college discipline.

"Old Holingshed," says the Gradus ad Cantabrigiam, "in his Chronicles, describing Cambridge, speaks of 'certain censors, or _deanes_, appointed to looke to the behaviour and manner of the Students there, whom they punish _very severely_, if they make any default, according to the quant.i.tye and qualitye of their trespa.s.ses.' When _flagellation_ was enforced at the universities, the Deans were the ministers of vengeance."

At the present time, a person applying for admission to a college in the University of Cambridge, Eng., is examined by the Dean and the Head Lecturer. "The Dean is the presiding officer in chapel, and the only one whose presence there is indispensable. He oversees the markers' lists, pulls up the absentees, and receives their excuses. This office is no sinecure in a large college." At Oxford "the discipline of a college is administered by its head, and by an officer usually called Dean, though, in some colleges, known by other names."--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, pp. 12, 16. _Literary World_, Vol. XII. p. 223.

In the older American colleges, whipping and cuffing were inflicted by a tutor, professor, or president; the latter, however, usually employed an agent for this purpose.

See under CORPORAL PUNISHMENT.

2. In the United States, a registrar of the faculty in some colleges, and especially in medical inst.i.tutions.--_Webster_.

A _dean_ may also be appointed by the Faculty of each Professional School, if deemed expedient by the Corporation.--_Laws Univ. at Cam., Ma.s.s._, 1848, p. 8.

3. The head or president of a college.

You rarely find yourself in a shop, or other place of public resort, with a Christ-Church-man, but he takes occasion, if young and frivolous, to talk loudly of the _Dean_, as an indirect expression of his own connection with this splendid college; the t.i.tle of _Dean_ being exclusively attached to the headship of Christ Church.--_De Quincey's Life and Manners_, p. 245.

DEAN OF CONVOCATION. At Trinity College, Hartford, this officer presides in the _House of Convocation_, and is elected by the same, biennially.--_Calendar Trin. Coll._, 1850, p. 7.

DEAN'S BOUNTY. In 1730, the Rev. Dr. George Berkeley, then Dean of Derry, in Ireland, came to America, and resided a year or two at Newport, Rhode Island, "where," says Clap, in his History of Yale College, "he purchased a country seat, with about ninety-six acres of land." On his return to London, in 1733, he sent a deed of his farm in Rhode Island to Yale College, in which it was ordered, "that the rents of the farm should be appropriated to the maintenance of the three best scholars in Greek and Latin, who should reside at College at least nine months in a year, in each of the three years between their first and second degrees."

President Clap further remarks, that "this premium has been a great incitement to a laudable ambition to excel in the knowledge of the cla.s.sics." It was commonly known as the _Dean's bounty_.--_Clap's Hist. of Yale Coll._, pp. 37, 38.

The Dean afterwards conveyed to it [Yale College], by a deed transmitted to Dr. Johnson, his Rhode Island farm, for the establishment of that _Dean's bounty_, to which sound cla.s.sical learning in Connecticut has been much indebted.--_Hist. Sketch of Columbia Coll._, p. 19.

DEAN SCHOLAR. The person who received the money appropriated by Dean Berkeley was called the _Dean scholar_.

This premium was formerly called the Dean's bounty, and the person who received it the _Dean scholar_.--_Sketches of Yale Coll._, p.

87.

DECENT. Tolerable; pretty good. He is a _decent_ scholar; a _decent_ writer; he is nothing more than _decent_. "This word,"

says Mr. Pickering, in his Vocabulary, "has been in common use at some of our colleges, but only in the language of conversation.

The adverb _decently_ (and possibly the adjective also) is sometimes used in a similar manner in some parts of Great Britain."

The greater part of the pieces it contains may be said to be very _decently_ written.--_Edinb. Rev._, Vol. I. p. 426.

DECLAMATION. The word is applied especially to the public speaking and speeches of students in colleges, practised for exercises in oratory.--_Webster_.

It would appear by the following extract from the old laws of Harvard College, that original declamations were formerly required of the students. "The Undergraduates shall in their course declaim publicly in the hall, in one of the three learned languages; and in no other without leave or direction from the President, and immediately give up their declamations fairly written to the President. And he that neglects this exercise shall be punished by the President or Tutor that calls over the weekly bill, not exceeding five shillings. And such delinquent shall within one week after give in to the President a written declamation subscribed by himself."--_Laws 1734, in Peirce's Hist. Harv.

Univ._, App., p. 129.

2. At the University of Cambridge, Eng., an essay upon a given subject, written in view of a prize, and publicly recited in the chapel of the college to which the writer belongs.

DECLAMATION BOARDS. At Bowdoin College, small establishments in the rear of each building, for urinary purposes.

DEDUCTION. In some of the American colleges, one of the minor punishments for non-conformity with laws and regulations is deducting from the marks which a student receives for recitations and other exercises, and by which his standing in the cla.s.s is determined.

Soften down the intense feeling with which he relates heroic Rapid's _deductions_.--_Harv. Mag._, Vol. I. p. 267.

2. At the University of Cambridge, Eng., an original proposition in geometry.

"How much Euclid did you do? Fifteen?"

"No, fourteen; one of them was a _deduction_."--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 75.

With a mathematical tutor, the hour of tuition is a sort of familiar examination, working out examples, _deductions_, &c.--_Ibid._, pp. 18, 19.

DEGRADATION. In the older American colleges, it was formerly customary to arrange the members of each cla.s.s in an order determined by the rank of the parent. "Degradation consisted in placing a student on the list, in consequence of some offence, below the level to which his father's condition would a.s.sign him; and thus declared that he had disgraced his family."

In the Immediate Government Book, No. IV., of Harvard College, date July 20th, 1776, is the following entry: "Voted, that Trumbal, a Middle Bachelor, who was degraded to the bottom of his cla.s.s for his misdemeanors when an undergraduate, having presented an humble confession of his faults, with a pet.i.tion to be restored to his place in the cla.s.s in the Catalogue now printing, be restored agreeable to his request." The Triennial Catalogue for that year was the first in which the names of the students appeared in an alphabetical order. The cla.s.s of 1773 was the first in which the change was made.

"The punishment of degradation," says President Woolsey, in his Historical Discourse before the Graduates of Yale College, "laid aside not very long before the beginning of the Revolutionary war, was still more characteristic of the times. It was a method of acting upon the aristocratic feelings of family; and we at this day can hardly conceive to what extent the social distinctions were then acknowledged and cherished. In the ma.n.u.script laws of the infant College, we find the following regulation, which was borrowed from an early ordinance of Harvard under President Dunster. 'Every student shall be called by his surname, except he be the son of a n.o.bleman, or a knight's eldest son.' I know not whether such a 'rara avis in terris' ever received the honors of the College; but a kind of colonial, unt.i.tled aristocracy grew up, composed of the families of chief magistrates, and of other civilians and ministers. In the second year of college life, precedency according to the aristocratic scale was determined, and the arrangement of names on the cla.s.s roll was in accordance. This appears on our Triennial Catalogue until 1768, when the minds of men began to be imbued with the notion of equality. Thus, for instance, Gurdon Saltonstall, son of the Governor of that name, and descendant of Sir Richard, the first emigrant of the family, heads the cla.s.s of 1725, and names of the same stock begin the lists of 1752 and 1756. It must have been a pretty delicate matter to decide precedence in a mult.i.tude of cases, as in that of the sons of members of the Council or of ministers, to which cla.s.s many of the scholars belonged. The story used to circulate, as I dare say many of the older graduates remember, that a shoemaker's son, being questioned as to the quality of his father, replied, that _he was upon the bench_, which gave him, of course, a high place."--pp. 48, 49.

See under PLACE.

DEGRADE. At the English universities to go back a year.

"'_Degrading_,' or going back a year," says Bristed, "is not allowed except in case of illness (proved by a doctor's certificate). A man _degrading_ for any other reason cannot go out afterwards in honors."--_Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p.

98.

I could choose the year below without formally _degrading_.--_Ibid._, p. 157.

DEGREE. A mark of distinction conferred on students, as a testimony of their proficiency in arts and sciences; giving them a kind of rank, and ent.i.tling them to certain privileges. This is usually evidenced by a diploma. Degrees are conferred _pro meritis_ on the alumni of a college; or they are honorary tokens of respect, conferred on strangers of distinguished reputation.

The _first degree_ is that of _Bachelor of Arts_; the _second_, that _of Master of Arts_. Honorary degrees are those of _Doctor of Divinity_, _Doctor of Laws_, &c. Physicians, also, receive the degree of _Doctor of Medicine_.--_Webster_.