A Collection of College Words and Customs | Page 9

various etymologies ascribed to the term Bachelor, "the true one, and the most
flattering," says the Gradus ad Cantabrigiam, "seems to be bacca laurus. Those who
either are, or expect to be, honored with the title of Bachelor of Arts, will hear with
exultation, that they are then 'considered as the budding flowers of the University; as the
small pillula, or bacca, of the laurel indicates the flowering of that tree, which is so
generally used in the crowns of those who have deserved well, both of the military states,
and of the republic of learning.'--Carter's History of Cambridge, [Eng.], 1753."
BACHELOR FELLOW. A Bachelor of Arts who is maintained on a fellowship.
BACHELOR SCHOLAR. At the University of Cambridge, Eng., a B.A. who remains in
residence after taking his degree, for the purpose of reading for a fellowship or acting as
private tutor. He is always noted for superiority in scholarship.
Bristed refers to the bachelor scholars in the annexed extract. "Along the wall you see
two tables, which, though less carefully provided than the Fellows', are still served with
tolerable decency and go through a regular second course instead of the 'sizings.' The
occupants of the upper or inner table are men apparently from twenty-two to twenty-six
years of age, and wear black gowns with two strings hanging loose in front. If this table
has less state than the adjoining one of the Fellows, it has more mirth and brilliancy;
many a good joke seems to be going the rounds. These are the Bachelors, most of them
Scholars reading for Fellowships, and nearly all of them private tutors. Although
Bachelors in Arts, they are considered, both as respects the College and the University, to
be in statu pupillari until they become M.A.'s. They pay a small sum in fees nominally
for tuition, and are liable to the authority of that mighty man, the Proctor." --Five Years in
an Eng. Univ., Ed. 2d, p. 20.
BACHELORSHIP. The state of one who has taken his first degree in a university or
college.--Webster.
BACK-LESSON. A lesson which has not been learned or recited; a lesson which has
been omitted.
In a moment you may see the yard covered with hurrying groups, some just released from
metaphysics or the blackboard, and some just arisen from their beds where they have

indulged in the luxury of sleeping over,--a luxury, however, which is sadly diminished by
the anticipated necessity of making up back-lessons.--Harv. Reg., p. 202.
BALBUS. At Yale College, this term is applied to Arnold's Latin Prose Composition,
from the fact of its so frequent occurrence in that work. If a student wishes to inform his
fellow-student that he is engaged on Latin Prose Composition, he says he is studying
Balbus. In the first example of this book, the first sentence reads, "I and Balbus lifted up
our hands," and the name Balbus appears in almost every exercise.
BALL UP. At Middlebury College, to fail at recitation or examination.
BANDS. Linen ornaments, worn by professors and clergymen when officiating; also by
judges, barristers, &c., in court. They form a distinguishing mark in the costume of the
proctors of the English universities, and at Cambridge, the questionists, on admission to
their degrees, are by the statutes obliged to appear in them.--Grad. ad Cantab.
BANGER. A club-like cane or stick; a bludgeon. This word is one of the Yale vocables.
The Freshman reluctantly turned the key, Expecting a Sophomore gang to see, Who, with
faces masked and bangers stout, Had come resolved to smoke him out. Yale Lit. Mag.,
Vol. XX. p. 75.
BARBER. In the English universities, the college barber is often employed by the
students to write out or translate the impositions incurred by them. Those who by this
means get rid of their impositions are said to barberize them.
So bad was the hand which poor Jenkinson wrote, that the many impositions which he
incurred would have kept him hard at work all day long; so he barberized them, that is,
handed them over to the college barber, who had always some poor scholars in his pay.
This practice of barberizing is not uncommon among a certain class of men.--Collegian's
Guide, p. 155.
BARNEY. At Harvard College, about the year 1810, this word was used to designate a
bad recitation. To barney was to recite badly.
BARNWELL. At Cambridge, Eng., a place of resort for characters of bad report.
One of the most "civilized" undertook to banter me on my non-appearance in the classic
regions of Barnwell.--Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ., Ed. 2d, p. 31.
BARRING-OUT SPREE. At Princeton College, when the students find the North
College clear of Tutors, which is about once a year, they bar up the entrance, get access
to the bell, and ring it.
In the