The times., 1899-09-21
FUNNY Words OF OXFORD
Verbal Coinage of an English Uni
yersity Mint.
A Vocabulary That Exeites Amaze
Not Gather in Respect--GOod Anglo
Saxon Words Twisted Ont of
Their Ancient PIainess.


| place of refuge. where abandoned and out
worn creeds find decent burial under the
shadow of moldering walls. To others she
| is the nursery of young barbarians at play,
who spend there few years of joyful
/ racketty existence Those who take the lat
ter view are doubtless strengthened in their
opinion when they hear the undergraduate
induiging in the strange jargon which may
| briefly be described as Oxford slang To the
| pathological purist a word is a sacred thing,
! 1t is, so to speak, a jewel which has been cut
and polished by attrition throughout the
ages. 1t is not 10 be rashly altered or
! roughly pulled about. But the average un-
4 dergraduate is no pathological pedant. What
is the good of his living in the midst of
/ learning, surrounded on every side by an
| illimitable ocean of words, ancient and mod
ern, dead and alive, if he cannot coin few
on his own initiative and utter them with
out the reproaeh of being called literary
"smasher?" Some OF them, indeed, he may
| justly boast, have passed into current coin
| and been accepted in the great world at
| large.
/ For example, who now speaks of assoeia-
| ton 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 violently, to jump upon, to give
beans" to--was itself further derivatiye
of soccer" or has a totally different origin
| of its own. Soccer" however, is an ex-
Icellent example of Oxford minting, whether
| or not she can claim the credit of its in-
vantion For the rule is as follows: Take
any word in common use; knock the end off
and add Ger" If it should sound accept
| able 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 the intermediate syl-
liable. All these processes appear to have
been gone through in order 10 produce SOC
Ger" from association, Rugby was more
fortunate. It had only tail TO lose.
| There has been furor at Oxford in re-
cent years for word-ccining of this charac-
ter, and some surprising effects have been
achieved. A freshman became "fresher''
| In the earlier Victorian era, and promises
to remain so for all time and existence.
| The unattached student-whose patron
saint is st. Katherine-was promptly la
beled "tosher' when first he made his un-
loved appearance. The Rudiments of Faith
and Religion" now cheerfully abolished
were known as "Rudders." Their successor,
| The Divinity Examination is usually
! spoken of as "Diyiners'' or 'sDivvers, -
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 Toggars," and breakfast is
and viii be ''brekker'
Maryels have been done with the NEST
unpromising material. For example one
would have thought that 1.-The Union" de-
fed corruption. But not so. Some ingen-
ious wit had an inspiration and called it
1.-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 10 the dag - When
in their mercy. the dons began to excuse
attendance at morning chapel and subsh-
tuted policy Of pin pricks instead, in the
shape of a rolieail this was known as a
| roller. When you passed an examina
ton you obtained a testamur or certifi-
cate, which was labeled "testugger,'' and
thanks to it you could proceed to take a
"dsgrugger" which is Oxford for degree
Paddington Station. dearest of all the Lon
don termini to the undergraduate heart dur
ing term, is Padder. A bonfire is ''bon-
ner" and '-collections"-a ceremony at
1
solemn boredom, frankly say what they
think OF you-are ''colleggers"
Each man has sitter and ''bedder,' -
attends as cheerfully as he can his "lec-
GERS and after lunch devotes himself to
"eccer," which is in ordinary parlance,
exercise This may take the shape of
''footer," or a mild constitutional known
as ''constituter," while If anyone lounges
idly about he is, of course, a Stacker -
A TN,, L.. L a.
If man is i'll, or thinks he is-the will
often being father to the thought-he goes
on the aeger'-that is to say he puts his
name down on the sick list and obtains the
luxury of hot dinner in his rooms. But
the triumph of this jargon was reached
when some one christened the Martyrs
Memorial the Martyrs Memugger .
Shades of Ridley and Latimer! To think
they Tit such fire. for that One won
ders if the undergraduates Of their day
stood round and said that their execution
was Bishop Bonner's bonner!
| St. Mary's Hall is known as Sximmery,
and st. Ednund's as Teddy Hall. Under
meath the fearsome form of ''Wuggins"
turks Worcester College, while the proctor
| is referred TO as proggins, and TO proctorize
becomes to prog. The Church of st. Philip
and st. James is affectionately spoken of
as Phil and jim" and all who have dwelt
near st. Peter s. in the East and been tor
| tured by its fearsome bell will un-
derstand why, despite its pleasant situa-
tion and curious crypt, it should be re-
ferred to as "St. Peters the Beast" A
Snug is a hard reading man who takes
no interest in his college, while the verb
Ito SNUG" also bears the more restricted
Significance of having cold dinner in your
rooms. A Brown George" is a huge earth
enware jug which holds the water for your
morning tub If you join the volunteers
you are discourteously spoken of as sbug
shooter" if you return and find your rooms
in a state of chaos your friends have been
iindulging in rag" Should the rag" be
serious-that is TO say, should all the furni-
ture be piled in one sad heap in the middle
of the room, with the coal scuttle atop
depend upon it some one has been giving
, a "binge." ''bnge,' it is to be observed.
ccnnotes liquid refreshments, while ito be
hinged" is sometimes followed by a sad
breakfast at a neighboring chemists.
Such are some OF the better known ex-
ampies of Oxford slang. Another feature OF
undergraduate conversation is the tendency
to seize upon some unfortunate word or
phrase and work ii to death. A few years
ago an undergraduate who wished to ex-
press his lively appreciation of anything
| would remark, I'm fearfully with II" to
which his friend might answer with equal
emphasis, I'm badly against it, Every
fe wminutes out would come these barbaric
phrases, eternal yea and nay OF approba-
ton and dissent. Report says that they
have now vanished into limbo. Gay was
another word which served its turn. You
could not only have gay time but attend