Word: offing
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Dates: during 1873-1873
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THE most striking feature of college-life is its dialect. One unskilled in the student's phraseology hears a conversation carried on in which occur words apparently so distorted that he is unable to intelligently understand its purport, and at first is inclined to call it mere jargon. There is...
What is here known as a "squirt" is called at other places a "rowl" or "rush." The analogy between the sudden ejection of water from a pipe and the quick and forcible expulsion of words from the mouth probably gave rise to this word, which so aptly expresses what it...
I might extend this piece indefinitely by showing synonymous expressions for words now in use here, such as "nuts," equivalent to "scrub," "mossy heads" to "senior," "cad" to "snob," "busky" to "sprung," "suck" to "crib"; but enough has been given. Even the tutors and professors are not exempted from nicknames...
I wish to mention one example of a college-coined word, originating here, which has attained a celebrity equal to that which the students of Cambridge, England, have given to "Hobson's choice," and that is the word "Yankee." It was in circulation here about 1713. According to Dr. William...
ORATION . . . BY JOHN FRANKLIN SIMMONS, of Hanover.