A Collection of College Words and Customs | Page 7

did allow and approbate.--Hall, Henry VII.,
Richardson's Dict.
"This word," says Mr. Pickering, "was formerly much used at our colleges instead of the
old English verb approve. The students used to speak of having their performances
approbated by the instructors. It is also now in common use with our clergy as a sort of

technical term, to denote a person who is licensed to preach; they would say, such a one
is approbated, that is, licensed to preach. It is also common in New England to say of a
person who is licensed by the county courts to sell spirituous liquors, or to keep a public
house, that he is approbated; and the term is adopted in the law of Massachusetts on this
subject." The word is obsolete in England, is obsolescent at our colleges, and is very
seldom heard in the other senses given above.
By the twelfth statute, a student incurs ... no penalty by declaiming or attempting to
declaim without having his piece previously approbated.--MS. Note to Laws of Harvard
College, 1798.
Observe their faces as they enter, and you will perceive some shades there, which, if they
are approbated and admitted, will be gone when they come out.--Scenes and Characters
in College, New Haven, 1847, p. 18.
How often does the professor whose duty it is to criticise and approbate the pieces for
this exhibition wish they were better! --Ibid., p. 195.
I was approbated by the Boston Association, I suspect, as a person well known, but
known as an anomaly, and admitted in charity.--Memorial of John S. Popkin, D.D., p.
lxxxv.
ASSES' BRIDGE. The fifth proposition of the first book of Euclid is called the Asses'
Bridge, or rather "Pons Asinorum," from the difficulty with which many get over it.
The Asses' Bridge in Euclid is not more difficult to be got over, nor the logarithms of
Napier so hard to be unravelled, as many of Hoyle's Cases and Propositions.--The
Connoisseur, No. LX.
After Mr. Brown had passed us over the "Asses' Bridge," without any serious accident,
and conducted us a few steps further into the first book, he dismissed us with many
compliments.--Alma Mater, Vol. I. p. 126.
I don't believe he passed the Pons Asinorum without many a halt and a stumble.--Ibid.,
Vol. I. p. 146.
ASSESSOR. In the English universities, an officer specially appointed to assist the
Vice-Chancellor in his court.--Cam. Cal.
AUCTION. At Harvard College, it was until within a few years customary for the
members of the Senior Class, previously to leaving college, to bring together in some
convenient room all the books, furniture, and movables of any kind which they wished to
dispose of, and put them up at public auction. Everything offered was either sold, or, if no
bidders could be obtained, given away.
AUDIT. In the University of Cambridge, England, a meeting of the Master and Fellows
to examine or audit the college accounts. This is succeeded by a feast, on which occasion
is broached the very best ale, for which reason ale of this character is called "audit

ale."--Grad. ad Cantab.
This use of the word thirst made me drink an extra bumper of "Audit" that very day at
dinner.--Alma Mater, Vol. I. p. 3.
After a few draughts of the Audit, the company disperse.--Ibid. Vol. I. p. 161.
AUTHORITY. "This word," says Mr. Pickering, in his Vocabulary, "is used in some of
the States, in speaking collectively of the Professors, &c. of our colleges, to whom the
government of these institutions is intrusted."
Every Freshman shall be obliged to do any proper errand or message for the Authority of
the College.--Laws Middlebury Coll., 1804, p. 6.
AUTOGRAPH BOOK. It is customary at Yale College for each member of the Senior
Class, before the close of his collegiate life, to obtain, in a book prepared for that purpose,
the signatures of the President, Professors, Tutors, and of all his classmates, with
anything else which they may choose to insert. Opposite the autographs of the college
officers are placed engravings of them, so far as they are obtainable; and the whole,
bound according to the fancy of each, forms a most valuable collection of agreeable
mementos.
When news of his death reached me. I turned to my book of classmate autographs, to see
what he had written there, and to read a name unusually dear.--Scenes and Characters in
College, New Haven, 1847, p. 201.
AVERAGE BOOK. At Harvard College, a book in which the marks received by each
student, for the proper performance of his college duties, are entered; also the deductions
from his rank resulting from misconduct. These unequal data are then arranged in a mean
proportion, and the result signifies the standing which the student has held for a given
period.
In vain the Prex's grave rebuke,