[Ads-l] snooker (Woolwich slang; newly-joined cadet), antedated to 1859

[Stephen Goranson]

OED gives 1872.

The foster brothers :
being a history of the school and college life of two young men /

James Payn

1859
English Book : Fiction 405 pages ; 20 cm
New York : Appleton. [GB; also published in London]

Pages 190-191
*
[....] these [/191] newly-elected youths joined the college almost immediately.
They were called by the oldsters "something snookers;" after the first term
they were "snookers" without the expletive; after that they were simply "neuxes"
like all the others, who were neither "old cadets" nor "corporals."
*
The author, James Payne, spend some time in the 1840s in the
Military Academy at Woolwich.

Stephen Goranson


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