Word: meanly
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Dates: during 1873-1873
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EACH decade of college life brings forth new words, the derivation, meaning, and correct application of which are often distorted; one year they may express one thing, and the next fall into disuse. The word which forms the caption of this article, since it is turned from its usual signification, is illustrative of what we mean. The work entitled "College Words and Customs" contains no definition of it; we infer, from the fact that this book was published some score of years ago, that the word is of comparatively recent origin. It is, however, only a name for certain customs...
...attentive study of all his works, and especially of those parts in which he is accused of bitterness, will discover facts which go far to refute this accusation. Setting aside those passages in which he is justly allowed to have chastised vices rather than faults, and acts more mean than weak, it will be found that, in almost every instance, his sarcasm produces a revulsion of feeling, - instead of despising, we pity...
...producing a witty article, one that shall make the public laugh in spite of itself; an onerous task for two reasons, - the public is decidedly opposed to laughing without being tickled, and it is exceedingly difficult to find a sensitive spot whereon to apply the straw. By public we mean the average mass of thinking men and women, excluding wholly that class of constitutional gigglers who laugh alike at David's solemnity and Twain's humor...
...accuse me of disregarding the rites of hospitality, if I indulge in a few reflections on the characteristics of some of my guests. I mean those whose comings and goings are regulated by the convenient location of my room, the extent of my library, especially that part relating to translations, and the condition of my tobacco...
...need not specify - all know whom I mean - that friendly young man whose visits are as regular as the flow and ebb of the sea; that congenial soul who, on finding our oak sported, evinces his superior knowledge of college customs by treating us to the soul-soothing sound of the devil's tattoo beaten upon our door in a manner truly vigorous, giving vent at the same time to expressions of mistrust as to our being out, and whose incredulous phiz we finally see peering at us through the ventilator. In what a pleasant frame of mind...