A Collection of College Words and Customs | Page 4

into college
ways and his admittatur.--Harvard Register, p. 377.
I received my admittatur and returned home, to pass the vacation and procure the college

uniform.--New England Magazine, Vol. III. p. 238.
It was not till six months of further trial, that we received our admittatur, so called, and
became matriculated.--A Tour through College, 1832, p. 13.
ADMITTO TE AD GRADUM. I admit you to a degree; the first words in the formula
used in conferring the honors of college.
The scholar-dress that once arrayed him, The charm Admitto te ad gradum, With touch of
parchment can refine, And make the veriest coxcomb shine, Confer the gift of tongues at
once, And fill with sense the vacant dunce. Trumbull's Progress of Dullness, Ed. 1794,
Exeter, p. 12.
ADMONISH. In collegiate affairs, to reprove a member of a college for a fault, either
publicly or privately; the first step of college discipline. It is followed by of or against; as,
to admonish of a fault committed, or against committing a fault.
ADMONITION. Private or public reproof; the first step of college discipline. In Harvard
College, both private and public admonition subject the offender to deductions from his
rank, and the latter is accompanied in most cases with official notice to his parents or
guardian.--See Laws Univ. at Cam., Mass., 1848, p. 21. Laws Yale Coll., 1837, p. 23.
Mr. Flynt, for many years a tutor in Harvard College, thus records an instance of college
punishment for stealing poultry:--"November 4th, 1717. Three scholars were publicly
admonished for thievery, and one degraded below five in his class, because he had been
before publicly admonished for card-playing. They were ordered by the President into the
middle of the Hall (while two others, concealers of the theft, were ordered to stand up in
their places, and spoken to there). The crime they were charged with was first declared,
and then laid open as against the law of God and the House, and they were admonished to
consider the nature and tendency of it, with its aggravations; and all, with them, were
warned to take heed and regulate themselves, so that they might not be in danger of so
doing for the future; and those who consented to the theft were admonished to beware,
lest God tear them in pieces, according to the text. They were then fined, and ordered to
make restitution twofold for each theft."--Quincy's Hist. Harv. Univ., Vol. I. p. 443.
ADOPTED SON. Said of a student in reference to the college of which he is or was a
member, the college being styled his alma mater.
There is something in the affection of our Alma Mater which changes the nature of her
adopted sons; and let them come from wherever they may, she soon alters them and
makes it evident that they belong to the same brood.--Harvard Register, p. 377.
ADVANCE. The lesson which a student prepares for the first time is called the advance,
in contradistinction to the review.
Even to save him from perdition, He cannot get "the advance," forgets "the review."
Childe Harvard, p. 13.

ÆGROTAL. Latin, ægrotus, sick. A certificate of illness. Used in the Univ. of Cam.,
Eng.
A lucky thought; he will get an "ægrotal," or medical certificate of illness.--Household
Words, Vol. II. p. 162.
ÆGROTAT. Latin; literally, he is sick. In the English universities, a certificate from a
doctor or surgeon, to the effect that a student has been prevented by illness from
attending to his college duties, "though, commonly," says the Gradus ad Cantabrigiam,
"the real complaint is much more serious; viz. indisposition of the mind! ægrotat animo
magis quam corpore." This state is technically called ægritude, and the person thus
affected is said to be æger.--The Etonian, Vol. II. pp. 386, 387.
To prove sickness nothing more is necessary than to send to some medical man for a pill
and a draught, and a little bit of paper with ægrotat on it, and the doctor's signature. Some
men let themselves down off their horses, and send for an ægrotat on the score of a
fall.--Westminster Rev., Am. Ed., Vol. XXXV. p. 235.
During this term I attended another course of Aristotle lectures, --but not with any
express view to the May examination, which I had no intention of going in to, if it could
be helped, and which I eventually escaped by an ægrotat from my physician.--Bristed's
Five Years in an Eng. Univ., Ed. 2d, p. 198.
Mr. John Trumbull well describes this state of indisposition in his Progress of Dullness:--
"Then every book, which ought to please, Stirs up the seeds of dire disease; Greek spoils
his eyes, the print's so fine, Grown dim with study, and with wine; Of Tully's Latin much
afraid, Each page he calls the doctor's aid; While geometry, with lines