A Collection of College Words and Customs Part 78

202.

SLOW. An epithet of depreciation, especially among students.

Its equivalent slang is to be found in the phrases, "no great shakes," and "small potatoes."--_Bristed_.

One very well disposed and very tipsy man who was great upon boats, but very _slow_ at books, endeavored to pacify me.--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 82.

The Juniors vainly attempted to show That Sophs and Seniors were somewhat _slow_ In talent and ability.

_Soph.o.m.ore Independent, Union College_, Nov. 1854.

SLOW-COACH. A dull, stupid fellow.

SLUM. A word once in use at Yale College, of which a graduate of the year 1821 has given the annexed explanation. "That noted dish to which our predecessors, of I know not what date, gave the name of _slum_, which was our ordinary breakfast, consisting of the remains of yesterday's boiled salt-beef and potatoes, hashed up, and indurated in a frying-pan, was of itself enough to have produced any amount of dyspepsia. There are stomachs, it may be, which can put up with any sort of food, and any mode of cookery; but they are not those of students. I remember an anecdote which President Day gave us (as an instance of hasty generalization), which would not be inappropriate here: 'A young physician, commencing practice, determined to keep an account of each case he had to do with, stating the mode of treatment and the result. His first patient was a blacksmith, sick of a fever. After the crisis of the disease had pa.s.sed, the man expressed a hankering for pork and cabbage. The doctor humored him in this, and it seemed to do him good; which was duly noted in the record. Next a tailor sent for him, whom he found suffering from the same malady. To him he _prescribed_ pork and cabbage; and the patient died. Whereupon, he wrote it down as a general law in such cases, that pork and cabbage will cure a blacksmith, but will kill a tailor.' Now, though the son of Vulcan found the pork and cabbage harmless, I am sure that _slum_ would have been a match for him."--_Scenes and Characters at College_, New Haven, 1847, p. 117.

SLUMP. German _schlump_; Danish and Swedish _slump_, a hap or chance, an accident; that is, a fall.

At Harvard College, a poor recitation.

SLUMP. At Harvard College, to recite badly; to make a poor recitation.

In fact, he'd rather dead than dig; he'd rather _slump_ than squirt.

_Poem before the Y.H. of Harv. Coll._, 1849.

_Slumping_ is his usual custom, Deading is his road to fame.--_MS. Poem_.

At recitations, unprepared, he _slumps_, Then cuts a week, and feigns he has the mumps.

_MS. Poem_, by F.E. Felton.

The usual signification of this word is given by Webster, as follows: "To fall or sink suddenly into water or mud, when walking on a hard surface, as on ice or frozen ground, not strong enough to bear the person." To which he adds: "This legitimate word is in common and respectable use in New England, and its signification is so appropriate, that no other word will supply its place."

From this meaning, the transfer is, by a.n.a.logy, very easy and natural, and the application very correct, to a poor recitation.

SMALL-COLLEGE. The name by which an inferior college in the English universities is known.

A "_Small-College_" man was Senior Wrangler.--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 61.

SMALL-COLLEGER. A member of a Small-College.

The two Latin prizes and the English poem [were carried off] by a _Small-Colleger_.--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed.

2d, p. 113.

The idea of a _Small-Colleger_ beating all Trinity was deemed preposterous.--_Ibid._, p. 127.

SMALLS, or SMALL-GO. At the University of Oxford, an examination in the second year. See LITTLE-GO; PREVIOUS EXAMINATION.

At the _Smalls_, as the previous Examination is here called, each examiner sends in his Greek and Latin book.--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 139.

It follows that the _Smalls_ is a more formidable examination than the Little-Go.--_Ibid._, p. 139.

SMASH. At the Wesleyan University, a total failure in reciting is called a _smash_.

SMILE. A small quant.i.ty of any spirituous liquor, or enough to give one a pleasant feeling.

Hast ta'en a "_smile_" at Brigham's.

_Poem before the Iadma_, 1850, p. 7.

SMOKE. In some colleges, one of the means made use of by the Soph.o.m.ores to trouble the Freshmen is to blow smoke into their rooms until they are compelled to leave, or, in other words, until they are _smoked out_. When a.s.safoetida is mingled with the tobacco, the sensation which ensues, as the foul effluvium is gently wafted through the keyhole, is anything but pleasing to the olfactory nerves.

Or when, in conclave met, the unpitying wights _Smoke_ the young trembler into "College rights": O spare my tender youth! he, suppliant, cries, In vain, in vain; redoubled clouds arise, While the big tears adown his visage roll, Caused by the smoke, and sorrow of his soul.

_College Life, by J.C. Richmond_, p. 4.

They would lock me in if I left my key outside, _smoke me out_, duck me, &c.--_Sketches of Williams College_, p. 74.

I would not have you sacrifice all these advantages for the sake _of smoking_ future Freshmen.--_Burial of Euclid_, 1850, p. 10.

A correspondent from the University of Vermont gives the following account of a practical joke, which we do not suppose is very often played in all its parts. "They 'train' Freshmen in various ways; the most _cla.s.sic_ is to take a pumpkin, cut a piece from the top, clean it, put in two pounds of 'fine cut,' put it on the Freshman's table, and then, all standing round with long pipe-stems, blow into it the fire placed in the _tobac_, and so fill the room with smoke, then put the Freshman to bed, with the pumpkin for a nightcap."

SMOUGE. At Hamilton College, to obtain without leave.

s.m.u.t. Vulgar, obscene conversation. Language which obtains

"Where Bacchus ruleth all that's done, And Venus all that's said."

s.m.u.tTY. Possessing the qualities of obscene conversation. Applied also to the person who uses such conversation.

Sn.o.b. In the English universities, a townsman, as opposed to a student; or a blackguard, as opposed to a gentleman; a loafer generally.--_Bristed_.

They charged the _Sn.o.bs_ against their will, And shouted clear and l.u.s.tily.

_Gradus ad Cantab_, p. 69.

Used in the same sense at some American colleges.

2. A mean or vulgar person; particularly, one who apes gentility.

--_Halliwell_.