A Collection of College Words and Customs Part 38

As a part of college discipline, the upper cla.s.ses were sometimes deprived of the privilege of employing the services of Freshmen.

The laws on this subject were these:--

"If any Scholar shall write or publish any scandalous Libel about the President, a Fellow, Professor, or Tutor, or shall treat any one of them with any reproachful or reviling Language, or behave obstinately, refractorily, or contemptuously towards either of them, or be guilty of any Kind of Contempt, he may be punished by Fine, Admonition, be deprived the Liberty of sending Freshmen for a Time; by Suspension from all the Privileges of College; or Expulsion, according as the Nature and Aggravation of the Crime may require."

"If any Freshman near the Time of Commencement shall fire the great Guns, or give or promise any Money, Counsel, or a.s.sistance towards their being fired; or shall illuminate College with Candles, either on the Inside or Outside of the Windows, or exhibit any such Kind of Show, or dig or sc.r.a.pe the College Yard otherwise than with the Liberty and according to the Directions of the President in the Manner formerly practised, or run in the College Yard in Company, they shall be deprived the Privilege of sending Freshmen three Months after the End of the Year."--_Laws Yale Coll._, 1774, pp. 13, 25, 26.

To the latter of these laws, a clause was subsequently added, declaring that every Freshman who should "do anything unsuitable for a Freshman" should be deprived of the privilege "of sending Freshmen on errands, or teaching them manners, during the first three months of _his_ Soph.o.m.ore year."--_Laws Yale Coll._, 1787, in _Yale Lit. Mag._, Vol. XII. p. 140.

In the Sketches of Yale College, p. 174, is the following anecdote, relating to this subject:--"A Freshman was once furnished with a dollar, and ordered by one of the upper cla.s.ses to procure for him pipes and tobacco, from the farthest store on Long Wharf, a good mile distant. Being at that time compelled by College laws to obey the unreasonable demand, he proceeded according to orders, and returned with ninety-nine cents' worth of pipes and one pennyworth of tobacco. It is needless to add that he was not again sent on a similar errand."

The custom of obliging the Freshmen to run on errands for the Seniors was done away with at Dartmouth College, by the cla.s.s of 1797, at the close of their Freshman year, when, having served their own time out, they presented a pet.i.tion to the Trustees to have it abolished.

In the old laws of Middlebury College are the two following regulations in regard to Freshmen, which seem to breathe the same spirit as those cited above. "Every Freshman shall be obliged to do any proper errand or message for the Authority of the College."

--"It shall be the duty of the Senior Cla.s.s to inspect the manners of the Freshman Cla.s.s, and to instruct them in the customs of the College, and in that graceful and decent behavior toward superiors, which politeness and a just and reasonable subordination require."--_Laws_, 1804, pp. 6, 7.

FRESHMANSHIP. The state of a Freshman.

A man who had been my fellow-pupil with him from the beginning of our _Freshmanship_, would meet him there.--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 150.

FRESHMAN'S LANDMARK. At Cambridge, Eng., King's College Chapel is thus designated. "This stupendous edifice may be seen for several miles on the London road, and indeed from most parts of the adjacent country."--_Grad. ad Cantab._

FRESHMAN, TUTOR'S. In Harvard College, the _Freshman_ who occupies a room under a _Tutor_. He is required to do the errands of the Tutor which relate to College, and in return has a high choice of rooms in his Soph.o.m.ore year.

The same remarks, _mutatis mutandis_, apply to the _Proctor's Freshman_.

FRESH-SOPH. An abbreviation of _Freshman-Soph.o.m.ore_. One who enters college in the _Soph.o.m.ore_ year, having pa.s.sed the time of the _Freshman_ year elsewhere.

I was a _Fresh-Soph.o.m.ore_ then, and a waiter in the commons' hall.

--_Yale Lit. Mag._, Vol. XII. p. 114.

FROG. In Germany, a student while in the gymnasium, and before entering the university, is called a _Frosch_,--a frog.

FUNK. Disgust; weariness; fright. A sensation sometimes experienced by students in view of an examination.

In Cantab phrase I was suffering examination _funk_.--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 61.

A singular case of _funk_ occurred at this examination. The man who would have been second, took fright when four of the six days were over, and fairly ran away, not only from the examination, but out of Cambridge, and was not discovered by his friends or family till some time after.--_Ibid._, p. 125.

One of our Scholars, who stood a much better chance than myself, gave up from mere _funk_, and resolved to go out in the Poll.--_Ibid._, p. 229.

2. Fear or sensibility to fear. The general application of the term.

So my friend's first fault is timidity, which is only not recognized as such on account of its vast proportions. I grant, then, that the _funk_ is sublime, which is a true and friendly admission.--_A letter to the N.Y. Tribune_, in _Lit. World_, Nov.

30, 1850.

_G_.

GAS. To impose upon another by a consequential address, or by detailing improbable stories or using "great swelling words"; to deceive; to cheat.

Found that Fairspeech only wanted to "_gas_" me, which he did pretty effectually.--_Sketches of Williams College_, p. 72.

GATE BILL. In the English universities, the record of a pupil's failures to be within his college at or before a specified hour of the night.

To avoid gate-bills, he will be out at night as late as he pleases, and will defy any one to discover his absence; for he will climb over the college walls, and fee his Gyp well, when he is out all night--_Grad. ad Cantab._, p. 128.

GATED. At the English universities, students who, for misdemeanors, are not permitted to be out of their college after ten in the evening, are said to be _gated_.

"_Gated_," i.e. obliged to be within the college walls by ten o'clock at night; by this he is prevented from partaking in suppers, or other nocturnal festivities, in any other college or in lodgings.--Note to _The College_, in _Blackwood's Mag._, May, 1849.

The lighter college offences, such as staying out at night or missing chapel, are punished by what they term "_gating_"; in one form of which, a man is actually confined to his rooms: in a more mild way, he is simply restricted to the precincts of the college.

--_Westminster Rev._, Am. ed., Vol. x.x.xV. p. 241.

GAUDY. In the University of Oxford, a feast or festival. The days on which they occur are called _gaudies_ or _gaudy days_. "Blount, in his Glossographia," says Archdeacon Nares in his Glossary, "speaks of a foolish derivation of the word from a Judge _Gaudy_, said to have been the inst.i.tutor of such days. But _such_ days were held in all times, and did not want a judge to invent them."

Come, Let's have one other _gaudy_ night: call to me All my sad captains; fill our bowls; once more Let's mock the midnight bell.

_Antony and Cleopatra_, Act. III. Sc. 11.

A foolish utensil of state, Which like old plate upon a _gaudy day_, 's brought forth to make a show, and that is all.

_Goblins_, Old Play, X. 143.

Edmund Riche, called of Pontigny, Archbishop of Canterbury. After his death he was canonized by Pope Innocent V., and his day in the calendar, 16 Nov., was formerly kept as a "_gaudy_" by the members of the hall.--_Oxford Guide_, Ed. 1847, p. 121.

2. An entertainment; a treat; a spree.

Cut lectures, go to chapel as little as possible, dine in hall seldom more than once a week, give _Gaudies_ and spreads.--_Gradus ad Cantab._, p. 122.

GENTLEMAN-COMMONER. The highest cla.s.s of Commoners at Oxford University. Equivalent to a Cambridge _Fellow-Commoner_.

Gentlemen Commoners "are eldest sons, or only sons, or men already in possession of estates, or else (which is as common a case as all the rest put together), they are the heirs of newly acquired wealth,--sons of the _nouveaux riches_"; they enjoy a privilege as regards the choice of rooms; a.s.sociate at meals with the Fellows and other authorities of the College; are the possessors of two gowns, "an undress for the morning, and a full dress-gown for the evening," both of which are made of silk, the latter being very elaborately ornamented; wear a cap, covered with velvet instead of cloth; pay double caution money, at entrance, viz. fifty guineas, and are charged twenty guineas a year for tutorage, twice the amount of the usual fee.--Compiled from _De Quincey's Life and Manners_, pp. 278-280.

GET UP A SUBJECT. See SUBJECT.

This was the fourth time I had begun Algebra, and essayed with no weakness of purpose to _get_ it _up_ properly.--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 157.