Cut lectures, go to chapel as little as possible, dine in hall
seldom more than once a week, give _Gaudies_ and spreads.--_Gradus
ad Cantab._, p. 122.
GENTLEMAN-COMMONER. The highest class of Commoners at Oxford
University. Equivalent to a Cambridge _Fellow-Commoner_.
Gentlemen Commoners "are eldest sons, or only sons, or men already
in possession of estates, or else (which is as common a case as
all the rest put together), they are the heirs of newly acquired
wealth,--sons of the _nouveaux riches_"; they enjoy a privilege as
regards the choice of rooms; associate at meals with the Fellows
and other authorities of the College; are the possessors of two
gowns, "an undress for the morning, and a full dress-gown for the
evening," both of which are made of silk, the latter being very
elaborately ornamented; wear a cap, covered with velvet instead of
cloth; pay double caution money, at entrance, viz. fifty guineas,
and are charged twenty guineas a year for tutorage, twice the
amount of the usual fee.--Compiled from _De Quincey's Life and
Manners_, pp. 278-280.
GET UP A SUBJECT. See SUBJECT.
This was the fourth time I had begun Algebra, and essayed with no
weakness of purpose to _get_ it _up_ properly.--_Bristed's Five
Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 157.
GILL. The projecting parts of a standing collar are, from their
situation, sometimes denominated _gills_.
But, O, what rage his maddening bosom fills!
Far worse than dust-soiled coat are ruined "_gills_."
_Poem before the Class of 1828, Harv. Coll., by J.C.
Richmond_, p. 6.
GOBBLE. At Yale College, to seize; to lay hold of; to appropriate;
nearly the same as to _collar_, q.v.
Alas! how dearly for the fun they paid,
Whom the Proffs _gobbled_, and the Tutors too.
_The Gallinipper_, Dec. 1849.
I never _gobbled_ one poor flat,
To cheer me with his soft dark eye, &c.
_Yale Tomahawk_, Nov. 1849.
I went and performed, and got through the burning,
But oh! and alas! I was _gobbled_ returning.
_Yale Banger_, Nov. 1850.
Upon that night, in the broad street, was I by one of the
brain-deficient men _gobbled_.--_Yale Battery_, Feb. 1850.
Then shout for the hero who _gobbles_ the prize.
_Songs of Yale_, 1853, p. 39.
At Cambridge, Eng., this word is used in the phrase _gobbling
Greek_, i.e. studying or speaking that tongue.
Ambitious to "_gobble_" his Greek in the _haute monde_.--_Alma
Mater_, Vol. I. p. 79.
It was now ten o'clock, and up stairs we therefore flew to
_gobble_ Greek with Professor ----.--_Ibid._, Vol. I. p. 127.
You may have seen him, traversing the grass-plots, "_gobbling
Greek_" to himself.--_Ibid._, Vol. I. p. 210.
GOLGOTHA. _The place of a skull_. At Cambridge, Eng., in the
University Church, "a particular part," says the Westminster
Review, "is appropriated to the _heads_ of the houses, and is
called _Golgotha_ therefrom, a name which the appearance of its
occupants renders peculiarly fitting, independent of the
pun."--Am. ed., Vol. XXXV. p. 236.
GONUS. A stupid fellow.
He was a _gonus_; perhaps, though, you don't know what _gonus_
means. One day I heard a Senior call a fellow a _gonus_. "A what?"
said I. "A great gonus," repeated he. "_Gonus_," echoed I, "what's
that mean?" "O," said he, "you're a Freshman and don't
understand." A stupid fellow, a dolt, a boot-jack, an ignoramus,
is called here a _gonus_. "All Freshmen," continued he gravely,
"are _gonuses_."--_The Dartmouth_, Vol. IV. p. 116.
If the disquisitionist should ever reform his habits, and turn his
really brilliant talents to some good account, then future
_gonuses_ will swear by his name, and quote him in their daily
maledictions of the appointment system.--_Amherst Indicator_, Vol.
I. p. 76.
The word _goney_, with the same meaning, is often used.
"How the _goney_ swallowed it all, didn't he?" said Mr. Slick,
with great glee.--_Slick in England_, Chap. XXI.
Some on 'em were fools enough to believe the _goney_; that's a
fact.--_Ibid._
GOOD FELLOW. At the University of Vermont, this term is used with
a signification directly opposite to that which it usually has. It
there designates a soft-brained boy; one who is lacking in
intellect, or, as a correspondent observes, "an _epithetical_
fool."
GOODY. At Harvard College, a woman who has the care of the
students' rooms. The word seems to be an abbreviated form of the
word _goodwife_. It has long been in use, as a low term of
civility or sport, and in some cases with the signification of a
good old dame; but in the sense above given it is believed to be
peculiar to Harvard College. In early times, _sweeper_ was in use
instead of _goody_, and even now at Yale College the word _sweep_
is retained. The words _bed-maker_ at Cambridge, Eng., and _gyp_
at Oxford, express the same idea.
The Rebelliad, an epic poem, opens with an invocation to the
Goody, as follows.
Old _Goody_ Muse! on thee I call,
_Pro more_, (as do poets all,)
To string thy fiddle, wax thy bow,
And scrape a ditty, jig, or so.
Now don't wax wrathy, but excuse
My calling you old _Goody_ Muse;
Because "_Old Goody_" is a name
Applied to every college dame.
Aloft in pendent dignity,
Astride her magic broom,
And wrapt in dazzling majesty,
See! see! the _Goody_ come!--p. 11.
Go on, dear _Goody_! and recite
The direful mishaps of the fight.--_Ibid._, p. 20.
The _Goodies_ hearing, cease to sweep,
And listen; while the cook-maids weep.--_Ibid._, p. 47.
The _Goody_ entered with her broom,
To make his bed and sweep his room.--_Ibid._, p. 73.
On opening the papers left to his care, he found a request that
his effects might be bestowed on his friend, the _Goody_, who had
been so attentive to him during his declining hours.--_Harvard
Register_, 1827-28, p. 86.
I was interrupted by a low knock at my door, followed by the
entrance of our old _Goody_, with a bundle of musty papers in her
hand, tied round with a soiled red ribbon.--_Collegian_, 1830, p.
231.
Were there any _Goodies_ when you were in college, father? Perhaps
you did not call them by that name. They are nice old ladies (not
so _very_ nice, either), who come in every morning, after we have
been to prayers, and sweep the rooms, and make the beds, and do
all that sort of work. However, they don't much like their title,
I find; for I called one, the other day, _Mrs. Goodie_, thinking
it was her real name, and she was as sulky as she could
be.--_Harvardiana_, Vol. III. p. 76.
Yet these half-emptied bottles shall I take,
And, having purged them of this wicked stuff,
Make a small present unto _Goody_ Bush.
_Ibid._, Vol. III. p. 257.
Reader! wert ever beset by a dun? ducked by the _Goody_ from thine
own window, when "creeping like snail unwillingly" to morning
prayers?--_Ibid._, Vol. IV. p. 274.
The crowd delighted
Saw them, like _Goodies_, clothed in gowns of satin,
Of silk or cotton.--_Childe Harvard_, p. 26, 1848.
On the wall hangs a Horse-shoe I found in the street;
'T is the shoe that to-day sets in motion my feet;
Though its charms are all vanished this many a year,
And not even my _Goody_ regards it with fear.
_The Horse-Shoe, a Poem, by J.B. Felton_, 1849, p. 4.
A very clever elegy on the death of Goody Morse, who
"For forty years or more
... contrived the while
No little dust to raise"
in the rooms of the students of Harvard College, is to be found in
Harvardiana, Vol. I. p. 233. It was written by Mr. (afterwards
Rev.) Benjamin Davis Winslow. In the poem which he read before his
class in the University Chapel at Cambridge, July 14, 1835, he
referred to her in these lines:
"'New brooms sweep clean': 't was thine, dear _Goody_ Morse,
To prove the musty proverb hath no force,
Since fifty years to vanished centuries crept,
While thy old broom our cloisters duly swept.
All changed but thee! beneath thine aged eye
Whole generations came and flitted by,
Yet saw thee still in office;--e'en reform
Spared thee the pelting of its angry storm.
Rest to thy bones in yonder church-yard laid,
Where thy last bed the village sexton made!"--p. 19.
GORM. From _gormandize_. At Hamilton College, to eat voraciously.
GOT. In Princeton College, when a student or any one else has been
cheated or taken in, it is customary to say, he was _got_.
GOVERNMENT. In American colleges, the general government is
usually vested in a corporation or a board of trustees, whose
powers, rights, and duties are established by the respective
charters of the colleges over which they are placed. The immediate
government of the undergraduates is in the hands of the president,
professors, and tutors, who are styled _the Government_, or _the
College Government_, and more frequently _the Faculty_, or _the
College Faculty_.--_Laws of Univ. at Cam., Mass._, 1848, pp. 7, 8.
_Laws of Yale Coll._, 1837, p. 5.
For many years he was the most conspicuous figure among those who
constituted what was formerly called "the
_Government_."--_Memorial of John S. Popkin, D.D._, p. vii.
[Greek: Kudiste], mighty President!!!
[Greek: Kalomen nun] the _Government_.--_Rebelliad_, p. 27.
Did I not jaw the _Government_,
For cheating more than ten per cent?--_Ibid._, p. 32.
They shall receive due punishment
From Harvard College _Government_.--_Ibid._, p. 44.
The annexed production, printed from a MS. in the author's
handwriting, and in the possession of the editor of this work, is
now, it is believed, for the first time presented to the public.
The time is 1787; the scene, Harvard College. The poem was
"written by John Q. Adams, son of the President, when an
undergraduate."
"A DESCRIPTION OF A GOVERNMENT MEETING.
"The Government of College met,
And _Willard_[31] rul'd the stern debate.
The witty _Jennison_[32] declar'd
As how, he'd been completely scar'd;
Last night, quoth he, as I came home,
I heard a noise in _Prescott's_[33] room.
I went and listen'd at the door,
As I had often done before;
I found the Juniors in a high rant,
They call'd the President a tyrant;
And said as how I was a fool,
A long ear'd ass, a sottish mule,
Without the smallest grain of spunk;
So I concluded they were drunk.
At length I knock'd, and Prescott came:
I told him 't was a burning shame,
That he should give his classmates wine;
And he should pay a heavy fine.
Meanwhile the rest grew so outragious,
Altho' I boast of being couragious,
I could not help being in a fright,
For one of them put out the light.
I thought 't was best to come away,
And wait for vengeance 'till this day;
And he's a fool at any rate
Who'll fight, when he can RUSTICATE.
When they [had] found that I was gone,
They ran through College up and down;
And I could hear them very plain
Take the Lord's holy name in vain.
To Wier's[34] chamber they then repair'd,
And there the wine they freely shar'd;
They drank and sung till they were tir'd.
And then they peacefully retir'd.
When this Homeric speech was said,
With drolling tongue and hanging head,
The learned Doctor took his seat,
Thinking he'd done a noble feat.
Quoth Joe,[35] the crime is great I own,
Send for the Juniors one by one.
By this almighty wig I swear,
Which with such majesty I wear,
Which in its orbit vast contains
My dignity, my power and brains,
That Wier and Prescott both shall see,
That College boys must not be free.
He spake, and gave the awful nod
Like Homer's Didonean God,
The College from its centre shook,
And every pipe and wine-glass broke.
"_Williams_,[36] with countenance humane,
While scarce from laughter could refrain,
Thought that such youthful scenes of mirth
To punishment could not give birth;
Nor could he easily divine
What was the harm of drinking wine.
"But _Pearson_,[37] with an awful frown,
Full of his article and noun,
Spake thus: by all the parts of speech
Which I so elegantly teach,
By mercy I will never stain
The character which I sustain.
Pray tell me why the laws were made,
If they're not to be obey'd;
Besides, _that Wier_ I can't endure,
For he's a wicked rake, I'm sure.
But whether I am right or not,
I'll not recede a single jot.
"_James_[38] saw 'twould be in vain t' oppose,
And therefore to be silent chose.
"_Burr_,[39] who had little wit or pride,
Preferr'd to take the strongest side.
And Willard soon receiv'd commission
To give a publick admonition.
With pedant strut to prayers he came,
Call'd out the criminals by name;
Obedient to his dire command,
Prescott and Wier before him stand.
The rulers merciful and kind,
With equal grief and wonder find,
That you do drink, and play, and sing,
And make with noise the College ring.
I therefore warn you to beware
Of drinking more than you can bear.
Wine an incentive is to riot,
Disturbance of the publick quiet.
Full well your Tutors know the truth,
For sad experience taught their youth.
Take then this friendly exhortation;
The next offence is RUSTICATION."
GOWN. A long, loose upper garment or robe, worn by professional
men, as divines, lawyers, students, &c., who are called _men of
the gown_, or _gownmen_. It is made of any kind of cloth, worn
over ordinary clothes, and hangs down to the ankles, or nearly so.
--_Encyc._
From a letter written in the year 1766, by Mr. Holyoke, then
President of Harvard College, it would appear that gowns were
first worn by the members of that institution about the year 1760.
The gown, although worn by the students in the English
universities, is now seldom worn in American colleges except on
Commencement, Exhibition, or other days of a similar public
character.
The students are permitted to wear black _gowns_, in which they
may appear on all public occasions.--_Laws Harv. Coll._, 1798, p.
37.
Every candidate for a first degree shall wear a black dress and
the usual black _gown_.--_Laws Univ. at Cam., Mass._, 1848, p. 20.
The performers all wore black _gowns_ with sleeves large enough to
hold me in, and shouted and swung their arms, till they looked
like so many Methodist ministers just ordained.--_Harvardiana_,
Vol. III. p. 111.
Saw them ... clothed in _gowns_ of satin,
Or silk or cotton, black as souls benighted.--
All, save the _gowns_, was startling, splendid, tragic,
But gowns on men have lost their wonted magic.
_Childe Harvard_, p. 26.
The door swings open--and--he comes! behold him
Wrapt in his mantling _gown_, that round him flows
Waving, as Cæsar's toga did enfold him.--_Ibid._, p. 36.
On Saturday evenings, Sundays, and Saints' days, the students wear
surplices instead of their _gowns_, and very innocent and
exemplary they look in them.--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng.
Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 21.