A Collection of College Words and Customs | Page 6

on hand when a wedding is to take place, and join in a most tremendous Charivari, nor can they be forced to retreat until they have received a due proportion of the sumptuous feast prepared."
APOSTLES. At Cambridge, England, the last twelve on the list of Bachelors of Arts; a degree lower than the [Greek: oi polloi] "Scape-goats of literature, who have at length scrambled through the pales and discipline of the Senate-House, without being plucked, and miraculously obtained the title of A.B."--Gradus ad Cantab.
At Columbian College, D.C., the members of the Faculty are called after the names of the Apostles.
APPLICANT. A diligent student. "This word," says Mr. Pickering, in his Vocabulary, "has been much used at our colleges. The English have the verb to apply, but the noun applicant, in this sense, does not appear to be in use among them. The only Dictionary in which I have found it with this meaning is Entick's, in which it is given under the word applier. Mr. Todd has the term applicant, but it is only in the sense of 'he who applies for anything.' An American reviewer, in his remarks on Mr. Webster's Dictionary, takes notice of the word, observing, that it 'is a mean word'; and then adds, that 'Mr. Webster has not explained it in the most common sense, a hard student.'--Monthly Anthology, Vol. VII. p. 263. A correspondent observes: 'The utmost that can be said of this word among the English is, that perhaps it is occasionally used in conversation; at least, to signify one who asks (or applies) for something.'" At present the word applicant is never used in the sense of a diligent student, the common signification being that given by Mr. Webster, "One who applies; one who makes request; a petitioner."
APPOINTEE. One who receives an appointment at a college exhibition or commencement.
The appointees are writing their pieces.--Scenes and Characters in College, New Haven, 1847, p. 193.
To the gratified appointee,--if his ambition for the honor has the intensity it has in some bosoms,--the day is the proudest he will ever see.--Ibid., p. 194.
I suspect that a man in the first class of the "Poll" has usually read mathematics to more profit than many of the "appointees," even of the "oration men" at Yale.--Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ., Ed. 2d, p. 382.
He hears it said all about him that the College appointees are for the most part poor dull fellows.--Ibid., p. 389.
APPOINTMENT. In many American colleges, students to whom are assigned a part in the exercises of an exhibition or commencement, are said to receive an appointment. Appointments are given as a reward for superiority in scholarship.
As it regards college, the object of appointments is to incite to study, and promote good scholarship.--Scenes and Characters in College, New Haven, 1847, p. 69.
If e'er ye would take an "appointment" young man, Beware o' the "blade" and "fine fellow," young man! Yale Lit. Mag., Vol. XV. p. 210.
Some have crammed for appointments, and some for degrees. Presentation Day Songs, Yale Coll., June 14, 1854.
See JUNIOR APPOINTMENTS.
APPROBAMUS. Latin; we approve. A certificate, given to a student, testifying of his fitness for the performance of certain duties.
In an account of the exercises at Dartmouth College during the Commencement season in 1774, Dr. Belknap makes use of this word in the following connection: "I attended, with several others, the examination of Joseph Johnson, an Indian, educated in this school, who, with the rest of the New England Indians, are about moving up into the country of the Six Nations, where they have a tract of land fifteen miles square given them. He appeared to be an ingenious, sensible, serious young man; and we gave him an approbamus, of which there is a copy on the next page. After which, at three P.M., he preached in the college hall, and a collection of twenty-seven dollars and a half was made for him. The auditors were agreeably entertained.
"The approbamus is as follows."--Life of Jeremy Belknap, D.D., pp. 71, 72.
APPROBATE. To express approbation of; to manifest a liking, or degree of satisfaction.--Webster.
The cause of this battle every man 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