A Collection of College Words and Customs. Benjamin Homer Hall
surprising that there should be so much shirking of chapel, when the very moderate amount of attendance required is considered.—Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ., Ed. 2d, p. 16.
To keep chapel, is to be present at the daily religious services of college.
The Undergraduate is expected to go to chapel eight times, or, in academic parlance, to keep eight chapels a week, two on Sunday, and one on every week-day, attending morning or evening chapel on week-days at his option. Nor is even this indulgent standard rigidly enforced. I believe if a Pensioner keeps six chapels, or a Fellow-Commoner four, and is quite regular in all other respects, he will never be troubled by the Dean. It certainly is an argument in favor of severe discipline, that there is more grumbling and hanging back, and unwillingness to conform to these extremely moderate requisitions, than is exhibited by the sufferers at a New England college, who have to keep sixteen chapels a week, seven of them at unreasonable hours. Even the scholars, who are literally paid for going, every chapel being directly worth two shillings sterling to them, are by no means invariable in attending the proper number of times.—Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ., Ed. 2d, pp. 16, 17.
CHAPEL CLERK. At Cambridge, Eng., in some colleges, it is the duty of this officer to mark the students as they enter chapel; in others, he merely sees that the proper lessons are read, by the students appointed by the Dean for that purpose.—Gradus ad Cantab.
The chapel clerk is sent to various parties by the deans, with orders to attend them after chapel and be reprimanded, but the chapel clerk almost always goes to the wrong person.—Westminster Rev., Am. ed., Vol. XXXV. p. 235.
CHAPLAIN. In universities and colleges, the clergyman who performs divine service, morning and evening.
CHAW. A deception or trick.
To say, "It's all a gum," or "a regular chaw" is the same thing. —The Dartmouth, Vol. IV. p. 117.
CHAW. To use up.
Yesterday a Junior cracked a joke on me, when all standing round shouted in great glee, "Chawed! Freshman chawed! Ha! ha! ha!" "No I a'n't chawed," said I, "I'm as whole as ever." But I didn't understand, when a fellow is used up, he is said to be chawed; if very much used up, he is said to be essentially chawed.—The Dartmouth, Vol. IV. p. 117.
The verb to chaw up is used with nearly the same meaning in some of the Western States.
Miss Patience said she was gratified to hear Mr. Cash was a musician; she admired people who had a musical taste. Whereupon Cash fell into a chair, as he afterwards observed, chawed up.—Thorpe's Backwoods, p. 28.
CHIP DAY. At Williams College a day near the beginning of spring is thus designated, and is explained in the following passage. "They give us, near the close of the second term, what is called 'chip day,' when we put the grounds in order, and remove the ruins caused by a winter's siege on the woodpiles."—Sketches of Williams College, 1847, p. 79.
Another writer refers to the day, in a newspaper paragraph. "'Chip day,' at the close of the spring term, is still observed in the old-fashioned way. Parties of students go off to the hills, and return with brush, and branches of evergreen, with which the chips, which have accumulated during the winter, are brushed together, and afterwards burnt."—Boston Daily Evening Traveller, July 12, 1854.
About college there had been, in early spring, the customary cleaning up of "chip day."—Williams Quarterly, Vol. II. p. 186.
CHOPPING AT THE TREE. At University College in the University of Oxford, "a curious and ancient custom, called 'chopping at the tree,' still prevails. On Easter Sunday, every member, as he leaves the hall after dinner, chops with a cleaver at a small tree dressed up for the occasion with evergreens and flowers, and placed on a turf close to the buttery. The cook stands by for his accustomed largess."—Oxford Guide, Ed. 1847, p. 144, note.
CHORE. In the German universities, a club or society of the students is thus designated.
Duels between members of different chores were once frequent;—sometimes one man was obliged to fight the members of a whole chore in succession.—Yale Lit. Mag., Vol. XV. p. 5.
CHRISTIAN. In the University of Cambridge, Eng., a member of
Christ's College.
CHUM. Armenian, chomm, or chommein, or ham, to dwell, stay, or lodge; French, chômer, to rest; Saxon, ham, home. A chamber-fellow; one who lodges or resides in the same room.—Webster.
This word is used at the universities and colleges, both in
England and the United States.
A young student laid a wager with his chum, that the Dean was at that instant smoking his pipe.—Philip's Life and Poems, p. 13.
But his chum Had wielded, in his just defence, A bowl of vast circumference.—Rebelliad, p. 17.
Every set of chambers was possessed by two co-occupants; they had generally the same bedroom, and a common study; and they were called chums.—De Quincey's Life and Manners, p. 251.
I am again your petitioner in behalf of that great chum of literature, Samuel Johnson.—Smollett, in Boswell.
In this last instance, the word chum is used either with the more extended meaning of companion, friend, or, as the sovereign prince of Tartary is called the Cham or Khan, so Johnson is called the chum (cham) or prince of literature.
CHUM. To occupy a chamber with another.
CHUMMING. Occupying a room with another.
Such is one of the evils of chumming.—Harvardiana, Vol. I. p. 324.
CHUMSHIP. The state of occupying a room in company with another; chumming.
In the seventeenth century, in Milton's time, for example, (about 1624,) and for more than sixty years after that era, the practice of chumship prevailed.—De Quincey's Life and Manners, p. 251.
CIVILIAN. A student of the civil law at the university.—Graves. Webster.
CLARIAN. In the University of Cambridge, Eng., a member of Clare
Hall.
CLASS. A number of students in a college or school, of the same standing, or pursuing the same studies. In colleges, the students entering or becoming members the same year, and pursuing the same studies.—Webster.
In the University of Oxford, class is the division of the candidates who are examined for their degrees according to their rate of merit. Those who are entitled to this distinction are denominated Classmen, answering to the optimes and wranglers in the University of Cambridge.—Crabb's Tech. Dict.
See an interesting account of "reading for a first class," in the
Collegian's Guide, Chap. XII.
CLASS. To place in ranks or divisions students that are pursuing the same studies; to form into a class or classes.—Webster.
CLASS BOOK. Within the last thirty or forty years, a custom has arisen at Harvard College of no small importance in an historical point of view, but which is principally deserving of notice from the many pleasing associations to which its observance cannot fail to give rise. Every graduating class procures a beautiful and substantial folio of many hundred pages, called the Class Book, and lettered with the year of the graduation of the class. In this a certain number of pages is allotted to each individual of the class, in which he inscribes a brief autobiography, paying particular attention to names and dates. The book is then deposited in the hands of the Class Secretary, whose duty it is to keep a faithful record of the marriage, birth of children, and death of each of his classmates, together with their various places of residence, and the offices