A Collection of College Words and Customs Part 76

SHINNY. At Princeton College, the game of _Shinny_, known also by the names of _Hawky_ and _Hurly_, is as great a favorite with the students as is football at other colleges. "The players," says a correspondent, "are each furnished with a stick four or five feet in length and one and a half or two inches in diameter, curved at one end, the object of which is to give the ball a surer blow. The ball is about three inches in diameter, bound with thick leather.

The players are divided into two parties, arranged along from one goal to the other. The ball is then '_bucked_' by two players, one from each side, which is done by one of these two taking the ball and asking his opponent which he will have, 'high or low'; if he says 'high,' the ball is thrown up midway between them; if he says 'low,' the ball is thrown on the ground. The game is opened by a scuffle between these two for the ball. The other players then join in, one party knocking towards North College, which is one 'home' (as it is termed), and the other towards the fence bounding the south side of the _Campus_, the other home. Whichever party first gets the ball home wins the game. A grand contest takes place annually between the Juniors and Soph.o.m.ores, in this game."

SHIP. Among collegians, one expelled from college is said to be _shipped_.

For I, you know, am but a college minion, But still, you'll all be _shipped_, in my opinion, When brought before Conventus Facultatis.

_Yale Tomahawk_, May, 1852.

He may be overhauled, warned, admonished, dismissed, _shipped_, rusticated, sent off, suspended.--_Burlesque Catalogue_, _Yale Coll._, 1852-53, p. 25.

SHIPWRECK. Among students, a total failure.

His university course has been a _shipwreck_, and he will probably end by going out unnoticed among the [Greek: _polloi_].--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p.

56.

SHORT-EAR. At Jefferson College, Penn., a soubriquet for a roistering, noisy fellow; a rowdy. Opposed to _long-ear_.

SHORT TERM. At Oxford, Eng., the extreme duration of residence in any college is under thirty weeks. "It is possible to keep '_short terms_,' as the phrase is, by residence of thirteen weeks, or ninety-one days."--_De Quincey's Life and Manners_, p. 274.

SIDE. In the University of Cambridge, Eng., the set of pupils belonging to any one particular tutor is called his _side_.

A longer discourse he will perhaps have to listen to with the rest of his _side_.--_Westminster Rev._, Am. ed., Vol. x.x.xV. p. 281.

A large college has usually two tutors,--Trinity has three,--and the students are equally divided among them,--_on their sides_ the phrase is.--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p.

11.

SILVER CUP. At Trinity College, Hartford, this is a testimonial voted by each graduating cla.s.s to the first legitimate boy whose father is a member of the cla.s.s.

At Yale College, a theory of this kind prevails, but it has never yet been carried into practice.

I tell you what, my cla.s.smates, My mind it is made up, I'm coming back three years from this, To take that _silver cup_.

I'll bring along the "requisite,"

A little white-haired lad, With "bib" and fixings all complete, And I shall be his "dad."

_Presentation Day Songs_, June 14, 1854.

See CLa.s.s CUP.

SIM. Abbreviated from _Simeonite_. A nickname given by the rowing men at the University of Cambridge, Eng., to evangelicals, and to all religious men, or even quiet men generally.

While pa.s.sing for a terribly hard reading man, and a "_Sim_" of the straitest kind with the "empty bottles,"... I was fast lapsing into a state of literary sensualism.--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, pp. 39, 40.

SIR. It was formerly the fashion in the older American colleges to call a Bachelor of Arts, Sir; this was sometimes done at the time when the Seniors were accepted for that degree.

Voted, Sept. 5th, 1763, "that _Sir_ Sewall, B.A., be the Instructor in the Hebrew and other learned languages for three years."--_Peirce's Hist. Harv. Univ._, p. 234.

December, 1790. Some time in this month, _Sir_ Adams resigned the berth of Butler, and _Sir_ Samuel Shapleigh was chosen in his stead.--_MS. Journal, Harv. Coll._

Then succeeded Cliosophic Oration in Latin, by _Sir_ Meigs.

Poetical Composition in English, by _Sir_ Barlow.--_Woolsey's Hist. Disc._, p. 121.

The author resided in Cambridge after he graduated. In common with all who had received the degree of Bachelor of Arts and not that of Master of Arts, he was called "_Sir_," and known as "_Sir_ Seccomb."

Some of the "_Sirs_" as well as undergraduates were arraigned before the college government.--_Father Abbey's Will_, Cambridge, Ma.s.s., 1854, p. 7.

SITTING OF THE SOLSTICES. It was customary, in the early days of Harvard College, for the graduates of the year to attend in the recitation-room on Mondays and Tuesdays, for three weeks, during the month of June, subject to the examination of all who chose to visit them. This was called the _Sitting of the Solstices_, because it happened in midsummer, or at the time of the summer solstice. The time was also known as the _Weeks of Visitation_.

SIZAR, SISAR, SIZER. In the University of Cambridge, Eng., a student of the third rank, or that next below that of a pensioner, who eats at the public table after the fellows, free of expense.

It was formerly customary for _every fellow-commoner_ to have his _sizar_, to whom he allowed a certain portion of commons, or victuals and drink, weekly, but no money; and for this the sizar was obliged to do him certain services daily.

A lower order of students were called _sub-sizars_. In reference to this cla.s.s, we take the following from the Gentleman's Magazine, 1787, p. 1146. "At King's College, they were styled _hounds_. The situation of a sub-sizar being looked upon in so degrading a light probably occasioned the extinction of the order.

But as the sub-sizars had certain a.s.sistances in return for their humiliating services, and as the poverty of parents stood in need of such a.s.sistances for their sons, some of the sizars undertook the same offices for the same advantages. The master's sizar, therefore, waited upon him for the sake of his commons, etc., as the sub-sizar had done; and the other sizars did the same office to the fellows for the advantage of the remains of their commons.

Thus the term sub-sizar became forgotten, and the sizar was supposed to be the same as the _servitor_. But if a sizar did not choose to accept of these a.s.sistances upon such degrading terms, he dined in his own room, and was called a _proper sizar_. He wore the same gown as the others, and his tutorage, etc. was no higher; but there was nothing servile in his situation."--"Now, indeed, all (or almost all) the colleges in Cambridge have allowed the sizars every advantage of the remains of the fellows' commons, etc., though they have very liberally exempted them from every servile office."

Another writer in the same periodical, 1795, p. 21, says: The sizar "is very much like the _scholars_ at Westminster, Eton, &c., who are on the _foundation_; and is, in a manner, the _half-boarder_ in private academies. The name was derived from the menial services in which he was occasionally engaged; being in former days compelled to transport the plates, dishes, _sizes_, and platters, to and from the tables of his superiors."

A writer in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, at the close of the article SIZAR, says of this cla.s.s: "But though their education is thus obtained at a less expense, they are not now considered as a menial order; for sizars, pensioner-scholars, and even sometimes fellow-commoners, mix together with the utmost cordiality."

"Sizars," says Bristed, "answer to the beneficiaries of American colleges. They receive pecuniary a.s.sistance from the college, and dine gratis after the fellows on the remains of their table. These 'remains' are very liberally construed, the sizar always having fresh vegetables, and frequently fresh tarts and puddings."--_Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 14.

SIZE. Food and drink from the b.u.t.tery, aside from the regular dinner at commons.

"A _size_" says Minsheu, "is a portion of bread or drinke, it is a farthing which schollers in Cambridge have at the b.u.t.tery; it is noted with the letter S. as in Oxford with the letter Q. for halfe a farthing; and whereas they say in Oxford, to battle in the b.u.t.tery Booke, i.e. to set downe on their names what they take in bread, drinke, b.u.t.ter, cheese, &c.; so, in Cambridge, they say, to _size_, i.e. to set downe their quantum, i.e. how much they take on their name in the b.u.t.tery Booke."

In the Poems of the Rev. Dr. Dodd, a _size_ of bread is described as "half a half-penny 'roll.'" Grose, also, in the Provincial Glossary, says "it signifies the half part of a halfpenny loaf, and comes from _scindo_, I cut."

In the Encyclopaedia Britannica is the following explanation of this term. "A _size_ of anything is the smallest quant.i.ty of that thing which can be thus bought" [i.e. by students in addition to their commons in the hall]; "two _sizes_, or a part of beef, being nearly equal to what a young person will eat of that dish to his dinner, and a _size_ of ale or beer being equal to half an English pint." It would seem, then, that formerly a _size_ was a small plateful of any eatable; the word now means anything had by students at dinner over and above the usual commons.

Of its derivation Webster remarks, "Either contracted from _a.s.size_, or from the Latin _scissus_. I take it to be from the former, and from the sense of setting, as we apply the word to the _a.s.size_ of bread."

This word was introduced into the older American colleges from Cambridge, England, and was used for many years, as was also the word _sizing_, with the same meaning. In 1750, the Corporation of Harvard College voted, "that the quant.i.ty of commons be as hath been usual, viz. two _sizes_ of bread in the morning; one pound of meat at dinner, with sufficient sauce [vegetables], and a half-pint of beer; and at night that a part pie be of the same quant.i.ty as usual, and also half a pint of beer; and that the supper messes be but of four parts, though the dinner messes be of six."--_Quincy's Hist. Harv. Coll._, Vol. II. p. 97.

The students of that day, if we may judge from the accounts which we have of their poor commons, would have used far different words, in addressing the Faculty, from King Lear, who, speaking to his daughter Regan, says:--

"'T is not in thee To grudge my pleasures,...

... to scant my _sizes_."

SIZE. In the University of Cambridge, Eng., to _size_ is to order any sort of victuals from the kitchens which the students may want in their rooms, or in addition to their commons in the hall, and for which they pay the cooks or butchers at the end of each quarter; a word corresponding to BATTEL at Oxford.--_Encyc. Brit._