The Public School Word-book: A conribution to to a historical glossary of words phrases and turns of expression obsolete and in current use peculiar to our great public schools together with some that have been or are modish at the universities — John Shaqi
The Public School Word-book: A conribution to to a historical glossary of words phrases and turns of expression obsolete and in current use peculiar to our great public schools together with some that have been or are modish at the universitiesFarmer, John Stephen
History
The Public School Word-book: A conribution to to a historical glossary of words phrases and turns of expression obsolete and in current use peculiar to our great public schools together with some that have been or are modish at the universities
Farmer, John Stephen
Endowed public schools (Great Britain); English language -- Great Britain -- Slang -- Dictionaries; Students -- Great Britain -- Language
*Bricks*, _subs._ (Wellington).—A kind of pudding. [Also (var.
dial.) = a kind of loaf.]
*Bridge of Grunts* (Cambridge).—_See_ ISTHMUS OF SUEZ.
*Bring-on*, _subs._ (The Leys).—A SIZING (_q.v._), or extra in
the way of food (as jam, tinned meat, &c.). [That is, what a
boy “BRINGS ON” to his table, chiefly at tea.]
*Broad* (The), _subs._ (Oxford).—Broad Street.
*Broad-sheet*, _subs._ (Harrow).—The printed school list: issued
after the TRIALS (_q.v._).
*Brock*, _subs._ (Winchester).—To bully; to tease; to badger.
[BROCK, provincial in North and Hants = a badger, and
baiting these animals was a school sport till 1870.] Hence
BROCKSTER = a bully.
*Brogues*, _subs._ (Christ’s Hospital).—Breeches. [An old
English survival: still dial. in Suffolk.]
*Broker*, _subs._ (Oxford).—A member of Pembroke College.
*Brooke Hall* (Charterhouse).—At Old Charterhouse the officers’
common room; at New Charterhouse the masters’ common room:
it is the place to which impositions must be taken.
1900. TOD, _Charterhouse_, p. 94. In the seventeenth century
schoolmasters had to be careful of their politics. Thus Master Robert
Brooke, the fourth of the “schoolmasters,” is said to have refused to
sign the Solemn League and Covenant, and to have flogged some of his
boys for Parliamentary proclivities. He was ejected from his office in
1643. At the Restoration, though not fully restored, he was given “two
chambers in cloisters and a pension of £30 a year.” After his death
these two chambers were knocked into one and it became BROOKE HALL.
*Brook-jumping*, _subs._ (Rugby).—_See_ HOUSE-WASHING.
*Brosier* (or *Brozier*). TO BROZIER MY DAME, _verb. phr._
(Eton).—To “eat out of house and home.” When a DAME (_q.v._)
keeps an unusually bad table, the boys agree on a certain
day to eat him literally “out of house and home.” Hence
BROZIERED = cleaned out. [_Brozier_ (Cheshire) = bankrupt.]
1796. MERTON, _Way to get Married_ (INCHBALD, _British Theatre_, vol.
xxvi.). [The term is so used here.]
*Browse*, _subs._ (Marlborough).—A pleasant or easy time; a
treat; anything enjoyable: _e.g._ MORNING BROWSE = leave off
early school; French is a BROWSE. Hence, CAPTAIN’S BROWSE =
an expedition to which a master takes his House Captains.
[From _browse_ = to eat lazily.]
_Adj._ Pleasant; enjoyable. Also (more frequently) BROWSY:
_e.g._ a BROWSY morning = a morning in which little work is
done; an awfully BROWSY day, or time = an enjoyable time.
_Verb._ To enjoy; to like: generally with _on_: _e.g._ “I
BROWSE ON old Smith,” or, “ON Science hour.”
*Brum*, _adj._ (Winchester).—(1) Poor; (2) mean, stingy. DEAD
BRUM = penniless.
*Brush*, _subs._ 1. (common).—A schoolmaster.
2. (Christ’s Hospital).—A flogging.
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