"grinding", an academic examination

[George Thompson]

The system took it into its head to send this message while I was still
typing it.

The 1835 cite from the OED reads:
I am obliged to "grind", . . . that is, to undergo a private examination
with an authorized teacher or tutor.

Green's new dictionary of slang doesn't add anything.

GAT

On Wed, Dec 7, 2011 at 1:54 PM, George Thompson <george.thompson at nyu.edu>wrote:

>
>
>
>      An Examination for an *Editorial Degree of M. D.*, supposed to be
> communicated by one of the Professors, or a *Fellow Graduate*, present at
> the Grinding.
>
>      National Advocate, for the Country, September 24, 1822, p. 2, col. 5
>
> This is the heading to a long essay satirizing a rival newspaper editor
> who must have expressed an opinion on (perhaps) a public health question
> that differed from that held by the editor of the Advocate.
>
> HDAS doesn't have "grinding" as such, has "grind" as a noun meaning hard
> study, from 1850, and as a verb, meaning to study hard, from 1815 and i835,
> citing the OED.
> 1815: Perhaps when Tom leaves Oxford, . . . we may contrive some gainful
> grinding scheme between us.
> 1835:
> --
> George A. Thompson
> Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
> Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much since then.
>



--
George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much since then.

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