the introduction of _biennials_.--_Centennial Anniversary of the
Linonian Soc._, Yale Coll., 1853, p. 70.

Faculty of College got together one night,
To have a little congratulation,
For they'd put their heads together and hatched out a load,
And called it "_Bien. Examination_."
_Presentation Day Songs_, June 14, 1854.


BIG-WIG. In the English universities, the higher dignitaries among
the officers are often spoken of as the _big-wigs._

Thus having anticipated the approbation of all, whether Freshman,
Sophomore, Bachelor, or _Big-Wig_, our next care is the choice of
a patron.--_Pref._ to _Grad. ad Cantab._


BISHOP. At Cambridge, Eng., this beverage is compounded of
port-wine mulled and burnt, with the addenda of roasted lemons and
cloves.--_Gradus ad Cantab._

We'll pass round the _Bishop_, the spice-breathing cup.
_Will. Sentinel's Poems_.


BITCH. Among the students of the University of Cambridge, Eng., a
common name for tea.

The reading man gives no swell parties, runs very little into
debt, takes his cup of _bitch_ at night, and goes quietly to bed.
--_Grad. ad Cantab._, p. 131.

With the Queens-men it is not unusual to issue an "At home" Tea
and Vespers, alias _bitch_ and _hymns_.--_Ibid., Dedication_.


BITCH. At Cambridge, Eng., to take or drink a dish of tea.

I followed, and, having "_bitched_" (that is, taken a dish of tea)
arranged my books and boxes.--_Alma Mater_, Vol. I. p. 30.

I dined, wined, or _bitched_ with a Medallist or Senior Wrangler.
--_Ibid._, Vol. II. p. 218.

A young man, who performs with great dexterity the honors of the
tea-table, is, if complimented at all, said to be "an excellent
_bitch_."--_Gradus ad Cantab._, p. 18.


BLACK BOOK. In the English universities, a gloomy volume
containing a register of high crimes and misdemeanors.

At the University of Göttingen, the expulsion of students is
recorded on a _blackboard_.--_Gradus ad Cantab._

Sirrah, I'll have you put in the _black book_, rusticated,
expelled.--_Miller's Humors of Oxford_, Act II. Sc. I.

All had reason to fear that their names were down in the proctor's
_black book_.--_Collegian's Guide_, p. 277.

So irksome and borish did I ever find this early rising, spite of
the health it promised, that I was constantly in the _black book_
of the dean.--_Alma Mater_, Vol. I. p. 32.


BLACK-HOOD HOUSE. See SENATE.


BLACK RIDING. At the College of South Carolina, it has until
within a few years been customary for the students, disguised and
painted black, to ride across the college-yard at midnight, on
horseback, with vociferations and the sound of horns. _Black
riding_ is recognized by the laws of the College as a very high
offence, punishable with expulsion.


BLEACH. At Harvard College, he was formerly said to _bleach_ who
preferred to be _spiritually_ rather than _bodily_ present at
morning prayers.

'T is sweet Commencement parts to reach,
But, oh! 'tis doubly sweet to _bleach_.
_Harvardiana_, Vol. III. p. 123.


BLOOD. A hot spark; a man of spirit; a rake. A word long in use
among collegians and by writers who described them.

With some rakes from Boston and a few College _bloods_, I got very
drunk.--_Monthly Anthology_, Boston, 1804, Vol. I. p. 154.

Indulgent Gods! exclaimed our _bloods_.
_The Crayon_, Yale Coll., 1823, p. 15.


BLOOD. At some of the Western colleges this word signifies
excellent; as, a _blood_ recitation. A student who recites well is
said to _make a blood_.


BLOODEE. In the Farmer's Weekly Museum, formerly printed at
Walpole, N.H., appeared August 21, 1797, a poetic production, in
which occurred these lines:--

Seniors about to take degrees,
Not by their wits, but by _bloodees_.

In a note the word _bloodee_ was thus described: "A kind of cudgel
worn, or rather borne, by the bloods of a certain college in New
England, 2 feet 5 inches in length, and 1-7/8 inch in diameter,
with a huge piece of lead at one end, emblematical of its owner. A
pretty prop for clumsy travellers on Parnassus."


BLOODY. Formerly a college term for daring, rowdy, impudent.

Arriving at Lord Bibo's study,
They thought they'd be a little _bloody_;
So, with a bold, presumptuous look,
An honest pinch of snuff they took.
_Rebelliad_, p. 44.

They roar'd and bawl'd, and were so _bloody_,
As to besiege Lord Bibo's study.

_Ibid._, p. 76.


BLOW. A merry frolic with drinking; a spree. A person intoxicated
is said to be _blown_, and Mr. Halliwell, in his Dict. Arch. and
Prov. Words, has _blowboll_, a drunkard.

This word was formerly used by students to designate their frolics
and social gatherings; at present, it is not much heard, being
supplanted by the more common words _spree_, _tight_, &c.

My fellow-students had been engaged at a _blow_ till the stagehorn
had summoned them to depart.--_Harvard Register_, 1827-28, p. 172.

No soft adagio from the muse of _blows_,
E'er roused indignant from serene repose.
_Ibid._, p. 233.

And, if no coming _blow_ his thoughts engage,
Lights candle and cigar.
_Ibid._, p. 235.

The person who engages in a blow is also called a _blow_.

I could see, in the long vista of the past, the many hardened
_blows_ who had rioted here around the festive
board.--_Collegian_, p. 231.


BLUE. In several American colleges, a student who is very strict
in observing the laws, and conscientious in performing his duties,
is styled a _blue_. "Our real delvers, midnight students," says a
correspondent from Williams College, "are called _blue_."

I wouldn't carry a novel into chapel to read, not out of any
respect for some people's old-womanish twaddle about the
sacredness of the place,--but because some of the _blues_ might
see you.--_Yale Lit. Mag._, Vol. XV. p. 81.

Each jolly soul of them, save the _blues_,
Were doffing their coats, vests, pants, and shoes.
_Yale Gallinipper_, Nov. 1848.

None ever knew a sober "_blue_"
In this "blood crowd" of ours.
_Yale Tomahawk_, Nov. 1849.

Lucian called him a _blue_, and fell back in his chair in a
pouting fit.--_The Dartmouth_, Vol. IV. p. 118.

To acquire popularity,... he must lose his money at bluff and
euchre without a sigh, and damn up hill and down the sober
church-going man, as an out-and-out _blue_.--_The Parthenon, Union
Coll._, 1851, p. 6.


BLUE-LIGHT. At the University of Vermont this term is used, writes
a correspondent, to designate "a boy who sneaks about college, and
reports to the Faculty the short-comings of his fellow-students. A
_blue-light_ is occasionally found watching the door of a room
where a party of jolly ones are roasting a turkey (which in
justice belongs to the nearest farm-house), that he may go to the
Faculty with the story, and tell them who the boys are."

BLUES. The name of a party which formerly existed at Dartmouth
College. In The Dartmouth, Vol. IV. p. 117, 1842, is the
following:--"The students here are divided into two parties,--the
_Rowes_ and the _Blues_. The Rowes are very liberal in their
notions; the _Blues_ more strict. The Rowes don't pretend to say
anything worse of a fellow than to call him a Blue, and _vice
versa_"

See INDIGO and ROWES.


BLUE-SKIN. This word was formerly in use at some American
colleges, with the meaning now given to the word BLUE, q.v.

I, with my little colleague here,
Forth issued from my cell,
To see if we could overhear,
Or make some _blue-skin_ tell.
_The Crayon_, Yale Coll., 1823, p. 22.


BOARD. The _boards_, or _college boards_, in the English
universities, are long wooden tablets on which the names of the
members of each college are inscribed, according to seniority,
generally hung up in the buttery.--_Gradus ad Cantab. Webster_.

I gave in my resignation this time without recall, and took my
name off the _boards_.--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ._,
Ed. 2d, p. 291.

Similar to this was the list of students which was formerly kept
at Harvard College, and probably at Yale. Judge Wingate, who
graduated at the former institution in 1759, writes as follows in
reference to this subject:--"The Freshman Class was, in my day at
college, usually _placed_ (as it was termed) within six or nine
months after their admission. The official notice of this was
given by having their names written in a large German text, in a
handsome style, and placed in a conspicuous part of the College
Buttery, where the names of the four classes of undergraduates
were kept suspended until they left College. If a scholar was
expelled, his name was taken from its place; or if he was degraded
(which was considered the next highest punishment to expulsion),
it was moved accordingly."--_Peirce's Hist. Harv. Univ._, p. 311.


BOGS. Among English Cantabs, a privy.--_Gradus ad Cantab._


BOHN. A translation; a pony. The volumes of Bohn's Classical
Library are in such general use among undergraduates in American
colleges, that _Bohn_ has come to be a common name for a
translation.

'Twas plenty of skin with a good deal of _Bohn_.
_Songs, Biennial Jubilee_, Yale Coll., 1855.


BOLT. An omission of a recitation or lecture. A correspondent from
Union College gives the following account of it:--"In West
College, where the Sophomores and Freshmen congregate, when there
was a famous orator expected, or any unusual spectacle to be
witnessed in the city, we would call a 'class meeting,' to
consider upon the propriety of asking Professor ---- for a _bolt_.
We had our chairman, and the subject being debated, was generally
decided in favor of the remission. A committee of good steady
fellows were selected, who forthwith waited upon the Professor,
and, after urging the matter, commonly returned with the welcome
assurance that we could have a _bolt_ from the next recitation."

One writer defines a _bolt_ in these words:--"The promiscuous
stampede of a class collectively. Caused generally by a few
seconds' tardiness of the Professor, occasionally by finding the
lock of the recitation-room door filled with shot."--_Sophomore
Independent_, Union College, Nov. 1854.

The quiet routine of college life had remained for some days
undisturbed, even by a single _bolt_.--_Williams Quarterly_, Vol.
II. p. 192.


BOLT. At Union College, to be absent from a recitation, on the
conditions related under the noun BOLT. Followed by _from_. At
Williams College, the word is applied with a different
signification. A correspondent writes: "We sometimes _bolt_ from a
recitation before the Professor arrives, and the term most
strikingly suggests the derivation, as our movements in the case
would somewhat resemble a 'streak of lightning,'--a
thunder-_bolt_."


BOLTER. At Union College, one who _bolts_ from a recitation.

2. A correspondent from the same college says: "If a student is
unable to answer a question in the class, and declares himself
unprepared, he also is a '_bolter_.'"


BONFIRE. The making of bonfires, by students, is not an unfrequent
occurrence at many of our colleges, and is usually a demonstration
of dissatisfaction, or is done merely for the sake of the
excitement. It is accounted a high offence, and at Harvard College
is prohibited by the following law:--"In case of a bonfire, or
unauthorized fireworks or illumination, any students crying fire,
sounding an alarm, leaving their rooms, shouting or clapping from
the windows, going to the fire or being seen at it, going into the
college yard, or assembling on account of such bonfire, shall be
deemed aiding and abetting such disorder, and punished
accordingly."--_Laws_, 1848, _Bonfires_.

A correspondent from Bowdoin College writes: "Bonfires occur
regularly twice a year; one on the night preceding the annual
State Fast, and the other is built by the Freshmen on the night
following the yearly examination. A pole some sixty or seventy
feet long is raised, around which brush and tar are heaped to a
great height. The construction of the pile occupies from four to
five hours."

Not ye, whom midnight cry ne'er urged to run
In search of fire, when fire there had been none;
Unless, perchance, some pump or hay-mound threw
Its _bonfire_ lustre o'er a jolly crew.
_Harvard Register_, p. 233.


BOOK-KEEPER. At Harvard College, students are allowed to go out of
town on Saturday, after the exercises, but are required, if not at
evening prayers, to enter their names before 10 P.M. with one of
the officers appointed for that purpose. Students were formerly
required to report themselves before 8 P.M., in winter, and 9, in
summer, and the person who registered the names was a member of
the Freshman Class, and was called the _book-keeper_.

I strode over the bridge, with a rapidity which grew with my
vexation, my distaste for wind, cold, and wet, and my anxiety to
reach my goal ere the hour appointed should expire, and the
_book-keeper's_ light should disappear from his window;
"For while his light holds out to burn,
The vilest sinner may return."--_Collegian_, p. 225.

See FRESHMAN, COLLEGE.


BOOK-WORK. Among students at Cambridge, Eng., all mathematics that
can be learned verbatim from books,--all that are not
problems.--_Bristed_.

He made a good fight of it, and ... beat the Trinity man a little
on the _book-work_.--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed.
2d, p. 96.

The men are continually writing out _book-work_, either at home or
in their tutor's rooms.--_Ibid._, p. 149.


BOOT-FOX. This name was at a former period given, in the German
universities, to a fox, or a student in his first half-year, from
the fact of his being required to black the boots of his more
advanced comrades.


BOOTLICK. To fawn upon; to court favor.

Scorns the acquaintance of those he deems beneath him; refuses to
_bootlick_ men for their votes.--_The Parthenon_, Union Coll.,
Vol. I. p. 6.

The "Wooden Spoon" exhibition passed off without any such hubbub,
except where the pieces were of such a character as to offend the
delicacy and modesty of some of those crouching, fawning,
_bootlicking_ hypocrites.--_The Gallinipper_, Dec. 1849.


BOOTLICKER. A student who seeks or gains favor from a teacher by
flattery or officious civilities; one who curries favor. A
correspondent from Union College writes: "As you watch the
students more closely, you will perhaps find some of them
particularly officious towards your teacher, and very apt to
linger after recitation to get a clearer knowledge of some
passage. They are _Bootlicks_, and that is known as _Bootlicking_;
a reproach, I am sorry to say, too indiscriminately applied." At
Yale, and _other colleges_, a tutor or any other officer who
informs against the students, or acts as a spy upon their conduct,
is also called a _bootlick_.

Three or four _bootlickers_ rise.--_Yale Banger_, Oct. 1848.

The rites of Wooden Spoons we next recite,
When _bootlick_ hypocrites upraised their might.
_Ibid._, Nov. 1849.

Then he arose, and offered himself as a "_bootlick_" to the
Faculty.--_Yale Battery_, Feb. 14, 1850.


BOOTS. At the College of South Carolina it is customary to present
the most unpopular member of a class with a pair of handsome
red-topped boots, on which is inscribed the word BEAUTY. They were
formerly given to the ugliest person, whence the inscription.


BORE. A tiresome person or unwelcome visitor, who makes himself
obnoxious by his disagreeable manners, or by a repetition of
visits.--_Bartlett_.

A person or thing that wearies by iteration.--_Webster_.

Although the use of this word is very general, yet it is so
peculiarly applicable to the many annoyances to which a collegian
is subjected, that it has come by adoption to be, to a certain
extent, a student term. One writer classes under this title
"text-books generally; the Professor who marks _slight_ mistakes;
the familiar young man who calls continually, and when he finds
the door fastened demonstrates his verdant curiosity by revealing
an inquisitive countenance through the ventilator."--_Sophomore
Independent_, Union College, Nov. 1854.

In college parlance, prayers, when the morning is cold or rainy,
are a _bore_; a hard lesson is a _bore_; a dull lecture or
lecturer is a _bore_; and, _par excellence_, an unwelcome visitor
is a _bore_ of _bores_. This latter personage is well described in
the following lines:--

"Next comes the bore, with visage sad and pale,
And tortures you with some lugubrious tale;
Relates stale jokes collected near and far,
And in return expects a choice cigar;
Your brandy-punch he calls the merest sham,
Yet does not _scruple_ to partake a _dram_.
His prying eyes your secret nooks explore;
No place is sacred to the college bore.
Not e'en the letter filled with Helen's praise,
Escapes the sight of his unhallowed gaze;
Ere one short hour its silent course has flown,
Your Helen's charms to half the class are known.
Your books he takes, nor deigns your leave to ask,
Such forms to him appear a useless task.
When themes unfinished stare you in the face,
Then enters one of this accursed race.
Though like the Angel bidding John to write,
Frail ------ form uprises to thy sight,
His stupid stories chase your thoughts away,
And drive you mad with his unwelcome stay.
When he, departing, creaks the closing door,
You raise the Grecian chorus, [Greek: kikkabau]."[02]
_MS. Poem_, F.E. Felton, Harv. Coll.


BOS. At the University of Virginia, the desserts which the
students, according to the statutes of college, are allowed twice
per week, are respectively called the _Senior_ and _Junior Bos_.


BOSH. Nonsense, trash, [Greek: phluaria]. An English Cantab's
expression.--_Bristed_.

But Spriggins's peculiar forte is that kind of talk which some
people irreverently call "_bosh_."--_Yale Lit. Mag._, Vol. XX. p.
259.


BOSKY. In the cant of the Oxonians, being tipsy.--_Grose_.

Now when he comes home fuddled, alias _Bosky_, I shall not be so
unmannerly as to say his Lordship ever gets drunk.--_The Sizar_,
cited in _Gradus ad Cantab._, pp. 20, 21.


BOWEL. At Harvard College, a student in common parlance will
express his destitution or poverty by saying, "I have not a
_bowel_." The use of the word with this signification has arisen,
probably, from a jocular reference to a quaint Scriptural
expression.


BRACKET. At the University of Cambridge, Eng., the result of the
final examination in the Senate-House is published in lists signed
by the examiners. In these lists the names of those who have been
examined are "placed in individual order of merit." When the rank
of two or three men is the same, their names are inclosed in
_brackets_.

At the close of the course, and before the examination is
concluded, there is made out a new arrangement of the classes
called the _Brackets_. These, in which each is placed according to
merit, are hung upon the pillars in the Senate-House.--_Alma
Mater_, Vol. II. p. 93.

As there is no provision in the printed lists for expressing the
number of marks by which each man beats the one next below him,
and there may be more difference between the twelfth and
thirteenth than between the third and twelfth, it has been
proposed to extend the use of the _brackets_ (which are now only
employed in cases of literal equality between two or three men),
and put together six, eight, or ten, whose marks are nearly equal.
--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 227.


BRACKET. In a general sense, to place in a certain order.

I very early in the Sophomore year gave up all thoughts of
obtaining high honors, and settled down contentedly among the
twelve or fifteen who are _bracketed_, after the first two or
three, as "English Orations."--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng.
Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 6.

There remained but two, _bracketed_ at the foot of the
class.--_Ibid._, p. 62.

The Trinity man who was _bracketed_ Senior Classic.--_Ibid._, p.
187.


BRANDER. In the German universities a name given to a student
during his second term.

Meanwhile large tufts and strips of paper had been twisted into
the hair of the _Branders_, as those are called who have been
already one term at the University, and then at a given signal
were set on fire, and the _Branders_ rode round the table on
chairs, amid roars of laughter.--_Longfellow's Hyperion_, p. 114.

See BRAND-FOX, BURNT FOX.


BRAND-FOX. A student in a German university "becomes a
_Brand-fuchs_, or fox with a brand, after the foxes of Samson," in
his second half-year.--_Howitt_.


BRICK. A gay, wild, thoughtless fellow, but not so _hard_ as the
word itself might seem to imply.

He is a queer fellow,--not so bad as he seems,--his own enemy, but
a regular _brick_.--_Collegian's Guide_, p. 143.

He will come himself (public tutor or private), like a _brick_ as
he is, and consume his share of the generous potables.--_Bristed's
Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 78.

See LIKE A BRICK.


BRICK MILL. At the University of Vermont, the students speak of
the college as the _Brick Mill_, or the _Old Brick Mill_.


BUCK. At Princeton College, anything which is in an intensive
degree good, excellent, pleasant, or agreeable, is called _buck_.


BULL. At Dartmouth College, to recite badly; to make a poor
recitation. From the substantive _bull_, a blunder or
contradiction, or from the use of the word as a prefix, signifying
large, lubberly, blundering.


BULL-DOG. In the English universities, the lictor or servant who
attends a proctor when on duty.

Sentiments which vanish for ever at the sight of the proctor with
his _bull-dogs_, as they call them, or four muscular fellows which
always follow him, like so many bailiffs.--_Westminster Rev._, Am.
Ed., Vol. XXXV. p. 232.

The proctors, through their attendants, commonly called
_bull-dogs_, received much certain information, &c.--_Collegian's
Guide_, p. 170.

And he had breathed the proctor's _dogs_.
_Tennyson, Prologue to Princess_.


BULLY CLUB. The following account of the _Bully Club_, which was
formerly a most honored transmittendum at Yale College, is taken
from an entertaining little work, entitled Sketches of Yale
College. "_Bullyism_ had its origin, like everything else that is
venerated, far back in antiquity; no one pretends to know the era
of its commencement, nor to say with certainty what was the cause
of its establishment, or the original design of the institution.
We can only learn from dim and doubtful tradition, that many years
ago, no one knows how many, there was a feud between students and
townsmen: a sort of general ill-feeling, which manifested itself
in the lower classes of society in rudeness and insult. Not
patiently borne with, it grew worse and worse, until a regular
organization became necessary for defence against the nightly
assaults of a gang of drunken rowdies. Nor were their opponents
disposed to quit the unequal fight. An organization in opposition
followed, and a band of tipsy townsmen, headed by some hardy tars,
took the field, were met, no one knows whether in offence or
defence, and after a fight repulsed, and a huge knotty club
wrested from their leader. This trophy of personal courage was
preserved, the organization perpetuated, and the _Bully Club_ was
every year, with procession and set form of speech, bestowed upon
the newly acknowledged leader. But in process of time the
organization has assumed a different character: there was no
longer need of a system of defence,--the "Bully" was still
acknowledged as class leader. He marshalled all processions, was
moderator of all meetings, and performed the various duties of a
chief. The title became now a matter of dispute; it sounded harsh
and rude to ears polite, and a strong party proposed a change: but
the supporters of antiquity pleaded the venerable character of the
customs identified almost with the College itself. Thus the
classes were divided, a part electing a marshal, class-leader, or
moderator, and a part still choosing a _bully_ and _minor
bully_--the latter usually the least of their number--from each
class, and still bestowing on them the wonted clubs, mounted with
gold, the badges of their office.

"Unimportant as these distinctions seem, they formed the ground of
constant controversy, each party claiming for its leader the
precedence, until the dissensions ended in a scene of confusion
too well known to need detail: the usual procession on
Commencement day was broken up, and the partisans fell upon each
other pell-mell; scarce heeding, in their hot fray, the orders of
the Faculty, the threats of the constables, or even the rebuke of
the chief magistrate of the State; the alumni were left to find
their seats in church as they best could, the aged and beloved
President following in sorrow, unescorted, to perform the duties
of the day. It need not be told that the disputes were judicially
ended by a peremptory ordinance, prohibiting all class
organizations of any name whatever."

A more particular account of the Bully Club, and of the manner in
which the students of Yale came to possess it, is given in the
annexed extract.

"Many years ago, the farther back towards the Middle Ages the
better, some students went out one evening to an inn at Dragon, as
it was then called, now the populous and pretty village of Fair
Haven, to regale themselves with an oyster supper, or for some
other kind of recreation. They there fell into an affray with the
young men of the place, a hardy if not a hard set, who regarded
their presence there, at their own favorite resort, as an
intrusion. The students proved too few for their adversaries. They
reported the matter at College, giving an aggravated account of
it, and, being strongly reinforced, went out the next evening to
renew the fight. The oystermen and sailors were prepared for them.
A desperate conflict ensued, chiefly in the house, above stairs
and below, into which the sons of science entered pell-mell. Which
came off the worse, I neither know nor care, believing defeat to
be far less discreditable to either party, and especially to the
students, than the fact of their engaging in such a brawl. Where
the matter itself is essentially disgraceful, success or failure
is indifferent, as it regards the honor of the actors. Among the
Dragoners, a great bully of a fellow, who appeared to be their
leader, wielded a huge club, formed from an oak limb, with a
gnarled excrescence on the end, heavy enough to battle with an
elephant. A student remarkable for his strength in the arms and