A Collection of College Words and Customs Part 39

GILL. The projecting parts of a standing collar are, from their situation, sometimes denominated _gills_.

But, O, what rage his maddening bosom fills!

Far worse than dust-soiled coat are ruined "_gills_."

_Poem before the Cla.s.s of 1828, Harv. Coll., by J.C.

Richmond_, p. 6.

GOBBLE. At Yale College, to seize; to lay hold of; to appropriate; nearly the same as to _collar_, q.v.

Alas! how dearly for the fun they paid, Whom the Proffs _gobbled_, and the Tutors too.

_The Gallinipper_, Dec. 1849.

I never _gobbled_ one poor flat, To cheer me with his soft dark eye, &c.

_Yale Tomahawk_, Nov. 1849.

I went and performed, and got through the burning, But oh! and alas! I was _gobbled_ returning.

_Yale Banger_, Nov. 1850.

Upon that night, in the broad street, was I by one of the brain-deficient men _gobbled_.--_Yale Battery_, Feb. 1850.

Then shout for the hero who _gobbles_ the prize.

_Songs of Yale_, 1853, p. 39.

At Cambridge, Eng., this word is used in the phrase _gobbling Greek_, i.e. studying or speaking that tongue.

Ambitious to "_gobble_" his Greek in the _haute monde_.--_Alma Mater_, Vol. I. p. 79.

It was now ten o'clock, and up stairs we therefore flew to _gobble_ Greek with Professor ----.--_Ibid._, Vol. I. p. 127.

You may have seen him, traversing the gra.s.s-plots, "_gobbling Greek_" to himself.--_Ibid._, Vol. I. p. 210.

GOLGOTHA. _The place of a skull_. At Cambridge, Eng., in the University Church, "a particular part," says the Westminster Review, "is appropriated to the _heads_ of the houses, and is called _Golgotha_ therefrom, a name which the appearance of its occupants renders peculiarly fitting, independent of the pun."--Am. ed., Vol. x.x.xV. p. 236.

GONUS. A stupid fellow.

He was a _gonus_; perhaps, though, you don't know what _gonus_ means. One day I heard a Senior call a fellow a _gonus_. "A what?"

said I. "A great gonus," repeated he. "_Gonus_," echoed I, "what's that mean?" "O," said he, "you're a Freshman and don't understand." A stupid fellow, a dolt, a boot-jack, an ignoramus, is called here a _gonus_. "All Freshmen," continued he gravely, "are _gonuses_."--_The Dartmouth_, Vol. IV. p. 116.

If the disquisitionist should ever reform his habits, and turn his really brilliant talents to some good account, then future _gonuses_ will swear by his name, and quote him in their daily maledictions of the appointment system.--_Amherst Indicator_, Vol.

I. p. 76.

The word _goney_, with the same meaning, is often used.

"How the _goney_ swallowed it all, didn't he?" said Mr. Slick, with great glee.--_Slick in England_, Chap. XXI.

Some on 'em were fools enough to believe the _goney_; that's a fact.--_Ibid._

GOOD FELLOW. At the University of Vermont, this term is used with a signification directly opposite to that which it usually has. It there designates a soft-brained boy; one who is lacking in intellect, or, as a correspondent observes, "an _epithetical_ fool."

GOODY. At Harvard College, a woman who has the care of the students' rooms. The word seems to be an abbreviated form of the word _goodwife_. It has long been in use, as a low term of civility or sport, and in some cases with the signification of a good old dame; but in the sense above given it is believed to be peculiar to Harvard College. In early times, _sweeper_ was in use instead of _goody_, and even now at Yale College the word _sweep_ is retained. The words _bed-maker_ at Cambridge, Eng., and _gyp_ at Oxford, express the same idea.

The Rebelliad, an epic poem, opens with an invocation to the Goody, as follows.

Old _Goody_ Muse! on thee I call, _Pro more_, (as do poets all,) To string thy fiddle, wax thy bow, And sc.r.a.pe a ditty, jig, or so.

Now don't wax wrathy, but excuse My calling you old _Goody_ Muse; Because "_Old Goody_" is a name Applied to every college dame.

Aloft in pendent dignity, Astride her magic broom, And wrapt in dazzling majesty, See! see! the _Goody_ come!--p. 11.

Go on, dear _Goody_! and recite The direful mishaps of the fight.--_Ibid._, p. 20.

The _Goodies_ hearing, cease to sweep, And listen; while the cook-maids weep.--_Ibid._, p. 47.

The _Goody_ entered with her broom, To make his bed and sweep his room.--_Ibid._, p. 73.

On opening the papers left to his care, he found a request that his effects might be bestowed on his friend, the _Goody_, who had been so attentive to him during his declining hours.--_Harvard Register_, 1827-28, p. 86.

I was interrupted by a low knock at my door, followed by the entrance of our old _Goody_, with a bundle of musty papers in her hand, tied round with a soiled red ribbon.--_Collegian_, 1830, p.

231.

Were there any _Goodies_ when you were in college, father? Perhaps you did not call them by that name. They are nice old ladies (not so _very_ nice, either), who come in every morning, after we have been to prayers, and sweep the rooms, and make the beds, and do all that sort of work. However, they don't much like their t.i.tle, I find; for I called one, the other day, _Mrs. Goodie_, thinking it was her real name, and she was as sulky as she could be.--_Harvardiana_, Vol. III. p. 76.

Yet these half-emptied bottles shall I take, And, having purged them of this wicked stuff, Make a small present unto _Goody_ Bush.

_Ibid._, Vol. III. p. 257.

Reader! wert ever beset by a dun? ducked by the _Goody_ from thine own window, when "creeping like snail unwillingly" to morning prayers?--_Ibid._, Vol. IV. p. 274.

The crowd delighted Saw them, like _Goodies_, clothed in gowns of satin, Of silk or cotton.--_Childe Harvard_, p. 26, 1848.

On the wall hangs a Horse-shoe I found in the street; 'T is the shoe that to-day sets in motion my feet; Though its charms are all vanished this many a year, And not even my _Goody_ regards it with fear.

_The Horse-Shoe, a Poem, by J.B. Felton_, 1849, p. 4.

A very clever elegy on the death of Goody Morse, who "For forty years or more ... contrived the while No little dust to raise"

in the rooms of the students of Harvard College, is to be found in Harvardiana, Vol. I. p. 233. It was written by Mr. (afterwards Rev.) Benjamin Davis Winslow. In the poem which he read before his cla.s.s in the University Chapel at Cambridge, July 14, 1835, he referred to her in these lines:

"'New brooms sweep clean': 't was thine, dear _Goody_ Morse, To prove the musty proverb hath no force, Since fifty years to vanished centuries crept, While thy old broom our cloisters duly swept.

All changed but thee! beneath thine aged eye Whole generations came and flitted by, Yet saw thee still in office;--e'en reform Spared thee the pelting of its angry storm.

Rest to thy bones in yonder church-yard laid, Where thy last bed the village s.e.xton made!"--p. 19.

GORM. From _gormandize_. At Hamilton College, to eat voraciously.

GOT. In Princeton College, when a student or any one else has been cheated or taken in, it is customary to say, he was _got_.