Apprehension of the severity of the examination, or what in after
times, by an academic figure of speech, was called screwing, or a
_screw_, was what excited the chief dread.--_Willard's Memories of
Youth and Manhood_, Vol. I. p. 256.
Passing such an examination is often denominated _taking a screw_.
And sad it is to _take a screw_.
_Harv. Reg._, p. 287.
2. At Bowdoin College, an imperfect recitation is called a
_screw_.
You never should look blue, sir,
If you chance to take a "_screw_," sir,
To us it's nothing new, sir,
To drive dull care away.
_The Bowdoin Creed_.
We've felt the cruel, torturing _screw_,
And oft its driver's ire.
_Song, Sophomore Supper, Bowdoin Coll._, 1850.
SCREW. To press with an excessive and unnecessarily minute
examination.
Who would let a tutor knave
_Screw _him like a Guinea slave!
_Rebelliad_, p. 53.
Have I been _screwed_, yea, deaded morn and eve,
Some dozen moons of this collegiate life?
_Harvardiana_, Vol. III. p. 255.
O, I do well remember when in college,
How we fought reason,--battles all in play,--
Under a most portentous man of knowledge,
The captain-general in the bloodless fray;
He was a wise man, and a good man, too,
And robed himself in green whene'er he came to _screw_.
_Our Chronicle of '26_, Boston, 1827.
In a note to the last quotation, the author says of the word
_screw_: "For the information of the inexperienced, we explain
this as a term quite rife in the universities, and, taken
substantively, signifying an intellectual nonplus."
At last the day is ended,
The tutor _screws_ no more.
_Knick. Mag._, Vol. XLV. p. 195.
SCREWING UP. The meaning of this phrase, as understood by English
Cantabs, may be gathered from the following extract. "A
magnificent sofa will be lying close to a door ... bored through
from top to bottom from the _screwing up_ of some former unpopular
tenant; "_screwing up_" being the process of fastening on the
outside, with nails and screws, every door of the hapless wight's
apartments. This is done at night, and in the morning the
gentleman is leaning three-fourths out of his window, bawling for
rescue."--_Westminster Rev._, Am. Ed., Vol. XXXV. p. 239.
SCRIBBLING-PAPER. A kind of writing-paper, rather inferior in
quality, a trifle larger than foolscap, and used at the English
universities by mathematicians and in the lecture-room.--_Bristed.
Grad. ad Cantab._
Cards are commonly sold at Cambridge as
"_scribbling-paper_."--_Westminster Rev._, Am. ed., Vol. XXXV. p.
238.
The summer apartment contained only a big standing-desk, the
eternal "_scribbling-paper_," and the half-dozen mathematical
works required.--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d,
p. 218.
SCROUGE. An exaction. A very long lesson, or any hard or
unpleasant task, is usually among students denominated a
_scrouge_.
SCROUGE. To exact; to extort; said of an instructor who imposes
difficult tasks on his pupils.
It is used provincially in England, and in America in some of the
Northern and Southern States, with the meaning _to crowd, to
squeeze_.--_Bartlett's Dict. of Americanisms_.
SCRUB. At Columbia College, a servant.
2. One who is disliked for his meanness, ill-breeding, or
vulgarity. Nearly equivalent to SPOON, q.v.
SCRUBBY. Possessing the qualities of a scrub. Partially synonymous
with the adjective SPOONY, q.v.
SCRUTATOR. In the University of Cambridge, England, an officer
whose duty it is to attend all _Congregations_, to read the
_graces_ to the lower house of the Senate, to gather the votes
secretly, or to take them openly in scrutiny, and publicly to
pronounce the assent or dissent of that house.--_Cam. Cal._
SECOND-YEAR MEN. In the University of Cambridge, Eng., the title
of _Second-Year Men_, or _Junior Sophs_ or _Sophisters_, is given
to students during the second year of their residence at the
University.
SECTION COURT. At Union College, the college buildings are divided
into sections, a section comprising about fifteen rooms. Within
each section is established a court, which is composed of a judge,
an advocate, and a secretary, who are chosen by the students
resident therein from their own number, and hold their offices
during one college term. Each section court claims the power to
summon for trial any inhabitant within the bounds of its
jurisdiction who may be charged with improper conduct. The accused
may either defend himself, or select some person to plead for him,
such residents of the section as choose to do so acting as jurors.
The prisoner, if found guilty, is sentenced at the discretion of
the court,--generally, to treat the company to some specified
drink or dainty. These courts often give occasion for a great deal
of fun, and sometimes call out real wit and eloquence.
At one of our "_section courts_," which those who expected to
enter upon the study of the law used to hold, &c.--_The Parthenon,
Union Coll._, 1851, p. 19.
SECTION OFFICER. At Union College, each section of the college
buildings, containing about fifteen rooms, is under the
supervision of a professor or tutor, who is styled the _section
officer_. This officer is required to see that there be no
improper noise in the rooms or corridors, and to report the
absence of students from chapel and recitation, and from their
rooms during study hours.
SEED. In Yale College this word is used to designate what is
understood by the common cant terms, "a youth"; "case"; "bird";
"b'hoy"; "one of 'em."
While tutors, every sport defeating,
And under feet-worn stairs secreting,
And each dark lane and alley beating,
Hunt up the _seeds_ in vain retreating.
_Yale Banger_, Nov. 1849.
The wretch had dared to flunk a gory _seed_!
_Ibid._, Nov. 1849.
One tells his jokes, the other tells his beads,
One talks of saints, the other sings of _seeds_.
_Ibid._, Nov. 1849.
But we are "_seeds_," whose rowdy deeds
Make up the drunken tale.
_Yale Tomahawk_, Nov. 1849.
First Greek he enters; and with reckless speed
He drags o'er stumps and roots each hapless _seed_.
_Ibid._, Nov. 1849.
Each one a bold _seed_, well fit for the deed,
But of course a little bit flurried.
_Ibid._, May, 1852.
SEEDY. At Yale College, rowdy, riotous, turbulent.
And snowballs, falling thick and fast
As oaths from _seedy_ Senior crowd.
_Yale Gallinipper_, Nov. 1848.
A _seedy_ Soph beneath a tree.
_Yale Gallinipper_, Nov. 1848.
2. Among English Cantabs, not well, out of sorts, done up; the
sort of feeling that a reading man has after an examination, or a
rowing man after a dinner with the Beefsteak Club. Also, silly,
easy to perform.--_Bristed_.
The owner of the apartment attired in a very old dressing-gown and
slippers, half buried in an arm-chair, and looking what some young
ladies call interesting, i.e. pale and _seedy_.--_Bristed's Five
Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 151.
You will seldom find anything very _seedy_ set for
Iambics.--_Ibid._, p. 182.
SELL. An unexpected reply; a deception or trick.
In the Literary World, March 15, 1851, is the following
explanation of this word: "Mr. Phillips's first introduction to
Curran was made the occasion of a mystification, or practical
joke, in which Irish wits have excelled since the time of Dean
Swift, who was wont (_vide_ his letters to Stella) to call these
jocose tricks 'a _sell_,' from selling a bargain." The word
_bargain_, however, which Johnson, in his Dictionary, defines "an
unexpected reply tending to obscenity," was formerly used more
generally among the English wits. The noun _sell_ has of late been
revived in this country, and is used to a certain extent in New
York and Boston, and especially among the students at Cambridge.
I sought some hope to borrow, by thinking it a "_sell_"
By fancying it a fiction, my anguish to dispel.
_Poem before the Iadma of Harv. Coll._, 1850, p. 8.
SELL. To give an unexpected answer; to deceive; to cheat.
For the love you bear me, never tell how badly I was
_sold_.--_Yale Lit. Mag._, Vol. XX. p. 94.
The use of this verb is much more common in the United States than
that of the noun of the same spelling, which is derived from it;
for instance, we frequently read in the newspapers that the Whigs
or Democrats have been _sold_, i.e. defeated in an election, or
cheated in some political affair. The phrase _to sell a bargain_,
which Bailey defines "to put a sham upon one," is now scarcely
ever heard. It was once a favorite expression with certain English
writers.
Where _sold he bargains_, Whipstitch?--_Dryden_.
No maid at court is less ashamed,
Howe'er for _selling bargains_ famed.--_Swift_.
Dr. Sheridan, famous for punning, intending _to sell a bargain_,
said, he had made a very good pun.--_Swift, Bons Mots de Stella_.
SEMESTER. Latin, _semestris_, _sex_, six, and _mensis_, month. In
the German universities, a period or term of six months. The
course of instruction occupies six _semesters_. Class distinctions
depend upon the number of _semesters_, not of years. During the
first _semester_, the student is called _Fox_, in the second
_Burnt Fox_, and then, successively, _Young Bursch_, _Old Bursch_,
_Old House_, and _Moss-covered Head_.
SENATE. In the University of Cambridge, England, the legislative
body of the University. It is divided into two houses, called
REGENT and NON-REGENT. The former consists of the vice-chancellor,
proctors, taxors, moderators, and esquire-beadles, all masters of
arts of less than five years' standing, and all doctors of
divinity, civil law, and physic, of less than two, and is called
the UPPER HOUSE, or WHITE-HOOD HOUSE, from its members wearing
hoods lined with white silk. The latter is composed of masters of
arts of five years' standing, bachelors of divinity, and doctors
in the three faculties of two years' standing, and is known as the
LOWER HOUSE, or BLACK-HOOD HOUSE, its members wearing black silk
hoods. To have a vote in the Senate, the graduate must keep his
name on the books of some college (which involves a small annual
payment), or in the list of the _commorantes in villâ_.--_Webster.
Cam. Cal. Lit. World_, Vol. XII. p. 283.
2. At Union College, the members of the Senior Class form what is
called the Senate, a body organized after the manner of the Senate
of the United States, for the purpose of becoming acquainted with
the forms and practice of legislation. The members of the Junior
Class compose the House of Representatives. The following account,
showing in what manner the Senate is conducted, has been furnished
by a member of Union College.
"On the last Friday of the third term, the House of
Representatives meet in their hall, and await their initiation to
the Upper House. There soon appears a committee of three, who
inform them by their chairman of the readiness of the Senate to
receive them, and perhaps enlarge upon the importance of the
coming trust, and the ability of the House to fill it.
"When this has been done, the House, headed by the committee,
proceed to the Senate Chamber (Senior Chapel), and are arranged by
the committee around the President, the Senators (Seniors)
meanwhile having taken the second floor. The President of the
Senate then rises and delivers an appropriate address, informing
them of their new dignities and the grave responsibilities of
their station. At the conclusion of this they take their seats,
and proceed to the election of officers, viz. a President, a
Vice-President, Secretary, and Treasurer. The President must be a
member of the Faculty, and is chosen for a term; the other
officers are selected from the House, and continue in office but
half a term. The first Vice-Presidency of the Senate is considered
one of the highest honors conferred by the class, and great is the
strife to obtain it.
"The Senate meet again on the second Friday of the next term, when
they receive the inaugural message of the President. He then
divides them into seven districts, each district including the
students residing in a Section, or Hall of College, except the
seventh, which is filled by the students lodging in town. The
Senate is also divided into a number of standing committees, as
Law, Ethics, Political Economy. Business is referred to these
committees, and reported on by them in the usual manner. The time
of the Senate is principally occupied with the discussion of
resolutions, in committee of the whole; and these discussions take
the place of the usual Friday afternoon recitation. At
Commencement the Senate have an orator of their own election, who
must, however, have been a past or honorary member of their body.
They also have a committee on the 'Commencement Card.'"