A Collection of College Words and Customs Part 67

Soon as the clouds divide, and dawning day Tints the _quadrangle_ with its earliest ray.

_The College_, in _Blackwood's Mag._, May, 1849.

QUARTER-DAY. The day when quarterly payments are made. The day that completes three months.

At Harvard and Yale Colleges, quarter-day, when the officers and instructors receive their quarterly salaries, was formerly observed as a holiday. One of the evils which prevailed among the students of the former inst.i.tution, about the middle of the last century, was the "riotous disorders frequently committed on the _quarter-days_ and evenings," on one of which, in 1764, "the windows of all the Tutors and divers other windows were broken,"

so that, in consequence, a vote was pa.s.sed that "the observation of _quarter-days_, in distinction from other days, be wholly laid aside, and that the undergraduates be obliged to observe the studying hours, and to perform the college exercises, on quarter-day, and the day following, as at other times."--_Peirce's Hist. Harv. Univ._, p. 216.

QUESTIONIST. In the English universities, a name given to those who are in the last term of their college course, and are soon to be examined for honors or degrees.--_Webster_.

In the "Orders agreed upon by the Overseers, at a meeting in Harvard College, May 6th, 1650," this word is used in the following sentence: "And, in case any of the Sophisters, _Questionists_, or Inceptors fail in the premises required at their hands,... they shall be deferred to the following year"; but it does not seem to have gained any prevalence in the College, and is used, it is believed, only in this pa.s.sage.

QUILLWHEEL. At the Wesleyan University, "when a student," says a correspondent, "'knocks under,' or yields a point, he says he _quillwheels_, that is, he acknowledges he is wrong."

_R_.

RAG. This word is used at Union College, and is thus explained by a correspondent: "To _rag_ and _ragging_, you will find of very extensive application, they being employed primarily as expressive of what is called by the vulgar thieving and stealing, but in a more extended sense as meaning superiority. Thus, if one declaims or composes much better than his cla.s.smates, he is said to _rag_ all his compet.i.tors."

The common phrase, "_to take the rag off_," i.e. to excel, seems to be the form from which this word has been abbreviated.

RAKE. At Williams and at Bowdoin Colleges, used in the phrase "to _rake_ an X," i.e. to recite perfectly, ten being the number of marks given for the best recitation.

RAM. A practical joke.

---- in season to be just too late A successful _ram_ to perpetrate.

_Soph.o.m.ore Independent_, Union Coll., Nov. 1854.

RAM ON THE CLERGY. At Middlebury College, a synonyme of the slang noun, "sell."

RANTERS. At Bethany College, in Virginia, there is "a band," says a correspondent, "calling themselves '_Ranters_,' formed for the purpose of perpetrating all kinds of rascality and mischievousness, both on their fellow-students and the neighboring people. The band is commanded by one selected from the party, called the _Grand Ranter_, whose orders are to be obeyed under penalty of expulsion of the person offending. Among the tricks commonly indulged in are those of robbing hen and turkey roosts, and feasting upon the fruits of their labor, of stealing from the neighbors their horses, to enjoy the pleasure of a midnight ride, and to facilitate their nocturnal perambulations. If detected, and any complaint is made, or if the Faculty are informed of their movements, they seek revenge by shaving the tails and manes of the favorite horses belonging to the person informing, or by some similar trick."

RAZOR. A writer in the Yale Literary Magazine defines this word in the following sentence: "Many of the members of this time-honored inst.i.tution, from whom we ought to expect better things, not only do their own shaving, but actually _make their own razors_. But I must explain for the benefit of the uninitiated. A pun, in the elegant college dialect, is called a razor, while an attempt at a pun is styled a _sick razor_. The _sick_ ones are by far the most numerous; however, once in a while you meet with one in quite respectable health."--Vol. XIII. p. 283.

The meeting will be opened with _razors_ by the Society's jester.

--_Yale Tomahawk_, Nov. 1849.

Behold how Duncia leads her chosen sons, All armed with squibs, stale jokes, _dull razors_, puns.

_The Gallinipper_, Dec. 1849.

READ. To be studious; to practise much reading; e.g. at Oxford, to _read_ for a first cla.s.s; at Cambridge, to _read_ for an honor. In America it is common to speak of "reading law, medicine," &c.

We seven stayed at Christmas up to _read_; We seven took one tutor.

_Tennyson, Prologue to Princess_.

In England the vacations are the very times when you _read_ most.

_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 78.

This system takes for granted that the students have "_read_," as it is termed, with a private pract.i.tioner of medicine.--_Cat.

Univ. of Virginia_, 1851, p. 25.

READER. In the University of Oxford, one who reads lectures on scientific subjects.--_Lyell_.

2. At the English universities, a hard student, nearly equivalent to READING MAN.

Most of the Cantabs are late _readers_, so that, supposing one of them to begin at seven, he will not leave off before half past eleven.--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 21.

READERSHIP. In the University of Oxford, the office of a reader or lecturer on scientific subjects.--_Lyell_.

READING. In the academic sense, studying.

One would hardly suspect them to be students at all, did not the number of gla.s.ses hint that those who carried them had impaired their sight by late _reading_.--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng.

Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 5.

READING MAN. In the English universities, a _reading man_ is a hard student, or one who is entirely devoted to his collegiate studies.--_Webster_.

The distinction between "_reading men_" and "_non-reading men_"

began to manifest itself.--_Alma Mater_, Vol. I. p. 169.

We might wonder, perhaps, if in England the "[Greek: oi polloi]"

should be "_reading men_," but with us we should wonder were they not.--_Williams Quarterly_, Vol. II. p. 15.

READING PARTY. In England, a number of students who in vacation time, and at a distance from the university, pursue their studies together under the direction of a coach, or private tutor.

Of this method of studying, Bristed remarks: "It is not _impossible_ to read on a reading-party; there is only a great chance against your being able to do so. As a very general rule, a man works best in his accustomed place of business, where he has not only his ordinary appliances and helps, but his familiar a.s.sociations about him. The time lost in settling down and making one's self comfortable and ready for work in a new place is not inconsiderable, and is all clear loss. Moreover, the very idea of a reading-party involves a combination of two things incompatible, --amus.e.m.e.nt and relaxation beyond the proper and necessary quant.i.ty of daily exercise, and hard work at books.

"Reading-parties do not confine themselves to England or the island of Great Britain. Sometimes they have been known to go as far as Dresden. Sometimes a party is of considerable size; when a crack Tutor goes on one, which is not often, he takes his whole team with him, and not unfrequently a Cla.s.sical and Mathematical Bachelor join their pupils."--_Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed.

2d, pp. 199-201.

READ UP. Students often speak of _reading up_, i.e. preparing themselves to write on a subject, by reading the works of authors who have treated of it.