For the benefit of those who have not sojourned long at Cambridge, some of the local colloquialisms and other quasi-technical terms used in this book are explained below.
Absit (Latin—“let him be absent”): Permission to stay away from Cambridge for one day. Absence must not be extended after midnight.
Aegrotat (Latin—“he is sick”): Permission to suspend university activities or postpone examinations because of illness.
Bedmaker: A college servant (female). Almost always abbreviated to “bedder.”
Blood: A colloquialism for an expert at athletics—an athletic snob. The term usually implies a somewhat over-careful selection of clothes and intimates.
Blue: Light blue at Cambridge and dark blue at Oxford are the colours given to those undergraduates who have represented their university in one of the major sports (boat-racing, cricket, football, etc.) in an inter-’Varsity contest. A blue has been described as “a hall-mark of intellectual inefficiency.” It is nothing of the sort.
Bull Dog: A college servant, usually youngish and fleet of foot who accompanies the proctor on his prowlings. They go in couples, wear tophats and are scrupulously polite. But they get there just the same.
Combination Room: A mysterious chamber in which the fellows of the college assemble to drink port after Hall. No one has ever yet discovered what they talk about there, but the conversation is reputed to be very brilliant. It has been described alternately as “the unwritten history of England” and “the unprintable history of Cambridge.”
C. U. A. D. S.: Cambridge University Amateur Dramatic Society.
Debag: Forcibly to remove the trousers (someone else’s). Usually accompanied by other playful badinage.
Don: A generic term for fellows, tutors and heads of colleges. The freshman is apt to confuse these gentlemen with the “gyps.” A simple rule to remember is: “The gyp is the tidier individual.” (Freshman’s Guide.)
Exeat (Latin—“let him go away”): Permission to leave Cambridge over night.
Girton: See Newnham.
Gyp: A college servant (male) usually assigned to take care of a certain set of rooms or the rooms of one particular staircase. Strangely enough, the name bears absolutely no relationship to the American slang word which is spelt the same. (At Oxford it is pronounced scout.)
Hall: The college dining hall. A large building usually remarkable for its architecture and portraits of illustrious alumni. Dining in Hall is more or less compulsory, hence “after Hall,” merely means after the evening meal.
High Table: A raised table in Hall reserved for dons, fellows and their guests. The food served is no better there—but the drinks are!
K. C: King’s Counselor.
K. P.: King’s Parade. A main street in Cambridge.
Littlego: The entrance examination which must be passed by all before being admitted to Cambridge University. There is no royal road for athletes. (Oh, yeah!)
Marlborough: A famous English public school.
Mays: End of year examinations usually held in May. There is nothing final about them but they are often fatal.
M. C. C: Marylebone Cricket Club. A famous London cricket eleven always referred to by its initials, possibly because the correct pronunciation of the word is too difficult for ordinary use.
Newnham (and Girton): The two women’s colleges at Cambridge. Officially females have no rights in the government of the University except inasmuch as they often marry the fellows, graduates and undergraduates, thus getting around it in another way. The percentages of such marriages is probably higher at Cambridge than at Oxford, since in the University, the girls are obliged to wear very unbecoming caps and gowns!
Oak: The usual set of college rooms at Cambridge has two doors. The outer one—or oak—is very thick, and when “sported” (closed), this is the polite English way of saying, “Keep out—this means YOU.”
Proctor: A don dressed up as a policeman. He prowls about, usually-after dark, accompanied by two bulldogs (see above) and maintains discipline by fining luckless or gownless undergraduates six shillings and eightpence or multiples thereof. Verb, (tr.) Prog.
R. A. M. C.: Royal Army Medical Corps.
Special: (1) The shortest and easiest cut to a B. A. Degree. (2) The shortest and easiest cut to intoxication via Beer.
Sport: See Oak (above).
Tripos (Derivation from Greek words meaning “three feet”): A university examination for the B. A. Degree. Usually—and very suitably—abbreviated to Trip.
Union: The famous debating hall at Cambridge. The “home of lost causes” and the cause of several (to my knowledge) lost homes!
’Varsity: Simply an abbreviation of the word University. It has no athletic or other sinister significance.