Word: prig
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Dates: during 1870-1879
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...form but not the essence of heroism. The moral of the omission of the exercises at the tree, it is claimed, would not be that the free, rollicking, glorious creature we know as the Harvard student has become a cynic, mounted on the hobby horse of "indifference," or a prig prating of "the true, the beautiful, and the good," both too superior to the common joys and sorrows of humanity to indulge in a hearty social frolic. On the contrary, the discontinuance of this ceremony would indicate the rise of an increased self-respect among the students which had made...
...perhaps more pleasant to have that meeting take place in a book than in real life. He is one of those persons who are always misjudged, and judged only by the poorer side of their characters. Should we meet him tomorrow, we should set him down as a prig, and perhaps be right in doing so. But if he is a prig at all, his priggishness is only a blemish, and not the mainspring of his character...