A Collection of College Words and Customs Part 71

The oration is often called, simply, _The Salutatory_.

And we ask our friends "out in the world," whenever they meet an educated man of the cla.s.s of '49, not to ask if he had the Valedictory or _Salutatory_, but if he takes the Indicator.--_Amherst Indicator_, Vol. II. p. 96.

SATIS. Latin; literally, _enough_. In the University of Cambridge, Eng., the lowest honor in the schools. The manner in which this word is used is explained in the Gradus ad Cantabrigiam, as follows: "_Satis disputasti_; which is at much as to say, in the colloquial style, 'Bad enough.' _Satis et bene disputasti_, 'Pretty fair,--tolerable.' _Satis et optime disputasti_, 'Go thy ways, thou flower and quintessence of Wranglers.' Such are the compliments to be expected from the Moderator, after the _act is kept_."--p. 95.

S.B. An abbreviation for _Scientiae Baccalaureus_, Bachelor in Science. At Harvard College, this degree is conferred on those who have pursued a prescribed course of study for at least one year in the Scientific School, and at the end of that period pa.s.sed a satisfactory examination. The different degrees of excellence are expressed in the diploma by the words, _c.u.m laude_, _c.u.m magna laude_, _c.u.m summa laude_.

SCARLET DAY. In the Church of England, certain festival days are styled _scarlet days_. On these occasions, the doctors in the three learned professions appear in their scarlet robes, and the n.o.blemen residing in the universities wear their full dresses.--_Grad. ad Cantab._

SCHEME. The printed papers which are given to the students at Yale College at the Biennial Examination, and which contain the questions that are to be answered, are denominated _schemes_. They are also called, simply, _papers_.

See the down-cast air, and the blank despair, That sits on each Soph'more feature, As his bleared eyes gleam o'er that horrid _scheme_!

_Songs of Yale_, 1853, p. 22.

Olmsted served an apprentices.h.i.+p setting up types, For the _schemes_ of Bien. Examination.

_Presentation Day Songs_, June 14, 1854.

Here's health to the tutors who gave us good _schemes_, Vive la compagnie!

_Songs, Biennial Jubilee_, 1855.

SCHOLAR. Any member of a college, academy, or school.

2. An undergraduate in English universities, who belongs to the foundation of a college, and receives support in part from its revenues.--_Webster_.

SCHOLAR OF THE HOUSE. At Yale College, those are called _Scholars of the House_ who, by superiority in scholars.h.i.+p, become ent.i.tled to receive the income arising from certain foundations established for the purpose of promoting learning and literature. In some cases the recipient is required to remain at New Haven for a specified time, and pursue a course of studies under the direction of the Faculty of the College.--_Sketches of Yale Coll._, p. 86.

_Laws of Yale Coll._

2. "The _scholar of the house_," says President Woolsey, in his Historical Discourse,--"_scholaris aedilitus_ of the Latin laws,--before the inst.i.tution of Berkeley's scholars.h.i.+ps which had the same t.i.tle, was a kind of aedile appointed by the President and Tutors to inspect the public buildings, and answered in a degree to the Inspector known to our present laws and practice. He was not to leave town until the Friday after Commencement, because in that week more than usual damage was done to the buildings."--p.

43.

The duties of this officer are enumerated in the annexed pa.s.sage.

"The Scholar of the House, appointed by the President, shall diligently observe and set down the gla.s.s broken in College windows, and every other damage done in College, together with the time when, and the person by whom, it was done; and every quarter he shall make up a bill of such damages, charged against every scholar according to the laws of College, and deliver the same to the President or the Steward, and the Scholar of the House shall tarry at College until Friday noon after the public Commencement, and in that time shall be obliged to view any damage done in any chamber upon the information of him to whom the chamber is a.s.signed."--_Laws of Yale Coll._, 1774, p. 22.

SCHOLARs.h.i.+P. Exhibition or maintenance for a scholar; foundation for the support of a student--_Ainsworth_.

SCHOOL. THE SCHOOLS, _pl._; the seminaries for teaching logic, metaphysics, and theology, which were formed in the Middle Ages, and which were characterized by academical disputations and subtilties of reasoning; or the learned men who were engaged in discussing nice points in metaphysics or theology.--_Webster_.

2. In some American colleges, the different departments for teaching law, medicine, divinity, &c. are denominated _schools_.

3. The name given at the University of Oxford to the place of examination. The princ.i.p.al exercises consist of disputations in philosophy, divinity, and law, and are always conducted in a sort of barbarous Latin.

I attended the _Schools_ several times, with the view of acquiring the tact and self-possession so requisite in these public contests.--_Alma Mater_, Vol. II. p. 39.

There were only two sets of men there, one who f.a.gged unremittingly for the _Schools_, and another devoted to frivolity and dissipation.--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 141.

S.C.L. At the English universities, one who is pursuing law studies and has not yet received the degree of B.C.L. or D.C.L., is designated S.C.L., _Student_ in or of _Civil Law_.

At the University of Cambridge, Eng., persons in this rank who have kept their acts wear a full-sleeved gown, and are ent.i.tled to use a B.A. hood.

SCONCE. To mulct; to fine. Used at the University of Oxford.

A young fellow of Baliol College, having, upon some discontent cut his throat very dangerously, the Master of the College sent his servitor to the b.u.t.tery-book to _sconce_ (i.e. fine) him 5s.; and, says the Doctor, tell him the next time he cuts his throat I'll _sconce_ him ten.--_Terrae-Filius_, No. 39.

Was _sconced_ in a quart of ale for quoting Latin, a pa.s.sage from Juvenal; murmured, and the fine was doubled.--_The Etonian_, Vol.

II. p. 391.

SCOUT. A cant term at Oxford for a college servant or waiter.--_Oxford Guide_.

My _scout_, indeed, is a very learned fellow, and has an excellent knack at using hard words. One morning he told me the gentleman in the next room _contagious_ to mine desired to speak to me. I once overheard him give a fellow-servant very sober advice not to go astray, but be true to his own wife; for _idolatry_ would surely bring a man to _instruction_ at last.--_The Student_, Oxf. and Cam., 1750, Vol. I. p. 55.

An anteroom, or vestibule, which serves the purpose of a _scout's_ pantry.--_The Etonian_, Vol. II. p. 280.

_Scouts_ are usually pretty communicative of all they know.--_Blackwood's Mag._, Eng. ed., Vol. LX. p. 147.

Sometimes used in American colleges.

In order to quiet him, we had to send for his factotum or _scout_, an old black fellow.--_Yale Lit. Mag._, Vol. XI. p. 282.

Sc.r.a.pE. To insult by drawing the feet over the floor.--_Grose_.

But in a manner quite uncivil, They hissed and _sc.r.a.ped_ him like the devil.

_Rebelliad_, p. 37.

"I do insist,"

Quoth he, "that two, who _sc.r.a.ped_ and hissed, Shall be condemned without a jury To pa.s.s the winter months _in rure_."--_Ibid._, p. 41.

They not unfrequently rose to open outrage or some personal molestation, as casting missiles through his windows at night, or "_sc.r.a.ping him_" by day.--_A Tour through College_, Boston, 1832, p. 25.

Sc.r.a.pING. A drawing of, or the act of drawing, the feet over the floor, as an insult to some one, or merely to cause disturbance; a shuffling of the feet.

New l.u.s.tre was added to the dignity of their feelings by the pathetic and impressive manner in which they expressed them, which was by stamping and _sc.r.a.ping_ majestically with their feet, when in the presence of the detested tutors.--_Don Quixotes at College_, 1807.

The morning and evening daily prayers were, on the next day (Thursday), interrupted by _sc.r.a.ping_, whistling, groaning, and other disgraceful noises.--_Circular, Harvard College_, 1834, p.

9.