The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-09-14
OXFORD SLANG.

barbarians at play, who spend there a
few years Of joyful, racketty existence
| Those who take the latter view are
doubtless strengthened in their opin-
| ion when they hear the undergraduate
| lndulgins in the strange iargon which
may briefly be described as Oxford
slang. To the pathological purist word
is sacred thing. 1t is, so to speak, a
| jewel which has been cut and polished
| by attrition throughout the ages. 1t is
not to be rashlyf altered or roughly
! pulled about. But the average under
graduate is no pathological pedant.
| What is the good of his living in the
midst of learning, surrounded on every
side by an illimtable ocean Of words,
ancient and modern, dead and alive. if
| lae cannot coin a few on his own initia-
tive, and utter" them without the re-
preach of being called literary
smasher?" Some of them, indeed, he
may justly boast, have passed into cur
rent coin and been accepted in the
great world at large.
For example, who now speaks Of AS
ISOLATION or Rugby football and who
does not welcome the abbreviated forms
of Soccer and "Rugger?" On whose
lips Association first changed into
Soccer history is silent 1t would be
interesting, also, to know whether the
verb ito sock meaning to kick VIC
lently, to jump upon, to give beans
to--was itself a further deriVative Of
Soccer" or has a totally different ori-
gin of it's own. Soccer" however. is
an excellent example of oxford mint
ing, whether or not she can claim the
credit OF its invention. For the rule is
as follows: Take any word in COM
mon use knock the end off and add
''er." If it should sound acceptable, it
suffers no further mutilation. If it is
still harsh and cacophonous, see what
it will look like by striking off its head
and the casual removal of an. interme-
date syllable, All these processes APP
pear to have been gone through in or
der to produce 'Soccer'' from Associa-
ton Rugby was more fortunate. 1t
had only tail to lose.
There has been a furore at oxford in
recent years for word-coining of this
character, and some surprising effects
have been achieved. A freshman be-
came a "fresher" in the earlier Victo-
rian era, and promises to remain so for
all time and existence. The unattached
student-Whose patron saint Is st
Katherne-Was promptly labelled
"tosher' when first he made his UNI
loved appearance. THE Rudiments of
Faith and Religion" now cheerfuly
abolished. were known as "Rudders."
Their successor, THE Divinity Exami-
nation,l is usually spoken Of as "Di-
viners" or divers" Jesus College
men were called "Jaggers," long before
a certain messenger boy played the
part of Mercury across the Atlantic,
and Queens men are "Quaggers. The
Torpids are 'Toggers,' and breakfast
is and will be 'brekker."
Marvels have been done with the most
material. For example,
one would have thought that the I'm
ion" defied corruption. But not SO.
Some ingenious wit had an Inspiration
and called it ''the Ugger," and his
friends bowed low before him. The
dean of a college is the ''deaner' or the
dagger, while even this is reduced by
some to "the dag" When. in their mer-
cy, the dons began to excuse attendance
at morning chapel and substituted a
policy of pin-prieks instead, in the
shape Of roll-call, this was known as
a 'roller." When you passed an exam
nation you obtained a testamur or GER
titicate, which was labelled a testing
ger" and thanks to it you could pro-
coed to take "degrugger" which is
oxford for degree. Paddington sta
ton, dearest of all the London termini
10 the undergraduate heart during term,
is Padder. A bonfire is bonner and
collections ceremony al which the
whole host of dons, sitting in solemn
boredom, frankly say what they think
Of you-are 'colleggers.'
Each man has sitter and bed
DER attends as cheerfully as he can
MS '1eccers," and after lunch devotes
himself to ''eccer," which is in ordna
ry parlance. exercise. This may take
he shape of 'footer," or a mild. const-
-utional known as a ''constituter,"
while if any one lounges idly about he
S, of course, Stacker" Canadian
,anoe Is a "Canader," while If a man is
IL, or thinks he is-the will often being
'ather to the thought-he goes on the |
is to say, he puts his
lame down on the sick-list and obtains
he luxury of hot dinner in his rooms.
But the triumph of this iargon was
cached when some one christened the
Martyrs Memorial the Martyrs Me- |
Shades of Ridley and Lati-
nerl To think they lit such fire"
or that, One wonders if the under
graduates of their day stood round and
'aid that their execution was Bishop
3onners bonnern'
St Marys Hall is known as skim
merry, and St Edmund's as Teddy Hall.
Underneath the fearsome form of
'Wugguns" turks Worcester College,
While the Proctor is referred to as
'roggins, and to proctorise becomes to
,rog. The Church of st. Philip and st.
ames is affectionately spoken of as
Phil and jim" and all who have
welt near st. Peter s-in-the- East and
understand why, despite its pleasant
ituation and curious crypt, il should be
eferred to as est Peters the Beast"
Snug" is a hard-reading man who
axes no interest in his college, while
he verb ito snug also bears the more
significance of having a cold
inner in your rooms. Brown
feorge" is a huge earthenware jug
which holds the water for your morn
ne tub. If you join the Volunteers you
re UiSpOlrtpOIlSl SDOl<pD Of as q ''hllp-