Slang from Yale, Princeton (1902)

[Jonathan Lighter]

Nice find, Ben.

JL

Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at RCI.RUTGERS.EDU> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Benjamin Zimmer
Subject: Slang from Yale, Princeton (1902)
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There's an article on slang at Yale, Cornell, and Princeton in the Dec.
21, 1902 Boston Globe (reprinted from the New Haven Register). Plenty of
antedatings here, such as "plastered" (OED 1912), "w(h)iz" (OED 1914),
"drule" (same as "drool" HDAS 1943?), and "gut" (HDAS 1916). The section
on Princeton slang provides such colorful aspersions as "goosemuck",
"doughweed", "dingleberry", and "nutfarm".

(By the way, Proquest has the Boston Globe up to 1922 now.)


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http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?RQT=309&VName=HNP&did=711057602
Boston Globe, Dec 21, 1902, (Magazine) p. 7, col. 7-8

"Hike yourself over to chapel!" is the early morning call of the Yale boys
after an evening spent at "Mory's," the famous "Yale joint," as the
students describe the place. If a student has "hit the benzine can" too
hard on the night before he is apt to be anxious to get "on to the water
wagon," which means he wants to swear off.
That all depends on whether he has been "incandescent" on the preceding
night, or "plastered," or simply had to be "put under the table."
"Incandescent" refers to a mild form of hilarity; "plastered" refers to
one who has to be helped to his room.
If in recitation a student makes a fair impression he is termed a "wiz."
If he fails it is a "drule" or a "handful of hot air."
A professor is "foxed" when he calls unexpectedly upon a man and the
latter makes a good recitation. If a student is eminently successful, he
has "killed the question," or "ruined the job," but if he "flunks" he is
"up against the hard luck story," and it is a case of "you to the tall
grass." If a student makes a mess of it his fellow students are apt to
whisper to him to "cut it out."
The expression, "he has done his stunts," is used as well of a professor
who has finished a lecture as of a student who has completed a recitation.
A "spiel" or a "drule" is a flat failure in this line, and a fellow who
has not been successful is a "cheese."
The all-round good fellow is a "corker," a "card" and a "peach" to his
classmates, while the unpopular man is referred to as a "nut," a "dope"
and a "sad one." If he also happens to be a hard student he is a "plugger"
or a "grind." A "hypo" is a fellow who devotes almost all his time to
study, while "greaser" is the superlative of which "hypo" is the
comparative.
[...]
Cigarettes are "dope sticks," and to "bang the box" means to play the
piano. A man who has money has "bullets" or "plunks" or "simoleons." A
"gut" course is a course that does not require much study.
After the junior promenade a student is said to be "frapped" if he has
been staying up nights to attend the festivities. "On to the burg" means a
trip to New York.

[skipping ahead to the part on Princeton...]

Princeton's vocabulary of slang is rich. ... Who, for instance, but a
Princeton man, and a Princeton man of very modern ways, could conjecture
what "goosemuck," "doughweed," or "dingleberry" means?
To study hard is "to pole," and consequently one who exhibits unusual zeal
in this line is "a poler." ... A professor who is at all lenient in his
methods of instruction is a "cinch," a "mark," "a good thing." An easy
course is a "gut," and one often hears a student who has unexpectedly
elected a difficult course remarking that he "got a hard gut," or that he
is "up against a tough gut."
[...]
As to the undergraduate slang, that hasn't much to do with the
intellectual side of the university life; the above mentioned words,
"goosemuck," "doughweed" and "dingleberry" are fair samples. By themselves
these words don't mean anything, but when applied by a Princeton
undergraduate they mean very much.
In addition there are the "nutfarm," one who has extraordinary
eccentricities; the "sad bird" or the "sad weed," the man who is not
popular; the "rare bird" or the "prize bunch," who is related generically
to the "sad bird" and the "sad weed;" the "knocker," the "fruit," who is
in the same class with the "nutfarm;" the "gapers" or the
"booze-fighters," the "dalliers," or men who play poker; the
"booze-clerks," who pass around the "suds" at the "boozarium," where
intoxicating drinks are sold; the "crabbers," men who were never known to
refuse to take something for nothing. -- New Haven Register.
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--Ben Zimmer


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