Gag, subs. 1. (Christ’s Hospital).—See quot. Gag-eater = a term of reproach.
1813. Lamb, Christ’s Hospital, in Works, p. 324 (ed. 1852). L. has recorded the repugnance of the school to GAGS, or the fat of fresh beef boiled; and sets it down to some superstition.... A GAG-EATER in our time was equivalent to a ghoul, ... and held in equal estimation.
2. (Winchester: obsolete).—An exercise (said to have been invented by Dr. Gabell) which consists in writing Latin criticisms on some celebrated piece, in a book sent in about once a month. In the Parts below Sixth Book and Senior Part, the GAGS consisted in historical analysis. [An abbreviation of “gathering.”]
c. 1840. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College, p. 108. From time to time, also, they had to write ... an analysis of some historical work; these productions were called GATHERINGS (or GAGS).
Gain. See Election.
Gaits (Geits, Gytes, or Gites), subs. (Royal High School, Edin.).—The first, or lowest class. See Cats.
Gallery, subs. (Winchester).—A Commoner bedroom. [From a tradition of GALLERIES in Commoners.] Hence GALLERY NYMPH = a housemaid.
Gang, subs. (Felsted: obsolete).—A particular friend. From the ordinary meaning of the word, applied first to the two friends, then to each of them. Used only of “acute” friendship. Also as verb = to carry on such a friendship with another.
Garden, The (Stonyhurst).—The playgrounds, built on the site of part of the old garden, long kept this name. “The boys went to the GARDEN” = “into the playground”: obsolete.
Gater, subs. (Winchester: obsolete).—A plunge head foremost into a POT (q.v.).
Gates, subs. (University).—The being forbidden to pass outside the gate of a college. Hence as verb = to confine wholly or during certain hours within the college gate for some infraction of discipline. To BREAK GATES = to stay out of college after hours. Gate-bill (old) = the record of an undergraduate’s failure to be within the precincts of his college by a specified time at night.
1803. Gradus ad Cant., p. 128. To avoid GATE-BILLS he will be out at night as late as he pleases ... climb over the college wall, and fee his gyp well.
1835. The Snobiad (Whibley, Cap and Gown, p. 141). Two proctors kindly holding either arm Staunch the dark blood and GATE him for the term.
1853. Bradley, Verdant Green, I. ch. xii. He won’t hurt you much, Giglamps! Gate and chapel you!
1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford, ch. xii. Now you’ll both be GATED probably, and the whole crew will be thrown out of gear.
1865. Cornhill Mag., p. 227. He is requested to confine himself to college after a specified hour, which is familiarly termed being GATED.
1870. Morning Advertiser, May 23. The two least culpable of the party have been GATED.
1881. Lang, Xxxii. Ballades, “Of Midsummer Term.” When freshmen are careless of GATES.
To be at gates, verb. phr. (Winchester: obsolete).—To assemble in Seventh Chamber passage, preparatory to going Hills or Cathedral.
Gaudeamus, subs. (general).—A feast; a drinking bout; any sort of merry-making. [German students’, but now general. From the first word of the mediæval (students’) ditty.]
Gaudy (or Gaudy-day), subs. (general).—A feast or entertainment: specifically, the annual dinner of the Fellows of a college in memory of founders or benefactors; or a festival of the Inns of Court. [Lat. gaudere = to rejoice.]
1540. Palsgrave, Acolastus [Halliwell]. We maye make our tryumphe, kepe our GAUDYES, or let us sette the cocke on the hope, and make good chere within dores. Ibid., I have good cause to set the cocke on the hope, and make GAUDYE chere.
1608. Shakspeare, Antony and Cleopatra, iii. 11. Come, Let’s have one other GAUDY night; call to me All my sad captains; fill our bowls; once more Let’s mock the midnight bell.
1636. Suckling, Goblins [Dodsley, Old Plays (Reed), x. 143]. A foolish utensil of state, Which, like old plate upon a GAUDY day, ’s brought forth to make a show, and that is all.
1724. E. Coles, Eng. Dict. Gaudy days, college or Inns of Court festivals.
1754. B. Martin, Eng. Dict., 2nd ed. Gaudies, double commons, such as they have on GAUDY or grand DAYS in colleges.
1760. Foote, Minor, Act i. Dine at twelve, and regale, upon a GAUDY DAY, with buns and beer at Islington.
1803. Gradus ad Cantab., p. 122. Cut lectures ... give GAUDIES and spreads.
1820. Lamb, Elia (Oxford in the Vacation). Methought I a little grudged at the coalition of the better Jude with Simon—clubbing, as it were, their sanctities together, to make up one poor GAUDY-DAY between them.
1822. Nares, Glossary, s.v. Gaudy day or Night. A time of festivity and rejoicing. The expression is yet fully retained in the University of Oxford. Blount, in his Glossographia, speaks of a foolish derivation of the word from a judge Gaudy, said to have been the institutor of such days. But such days were held in all times, and did not want a judge to invent them.
1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xxiii. We had a carouse to your honour ... we fought, too, to finish off the GAUDY.
1878. Besant and Rice, By Celia’s Arbour, ch. xxxiii. Champagne ... goes equally well with a simple luncheon of cold chicken, and with the most elaborate GAUDY.
General’s-day (Stonyhurst).—See Day.
Gentlemen-Philosopher, subs. (Stonyhurst: obsolete).—See Philosopher.
Genuine, subs. (Winchester).—Praise. Also as verb = to praise. [It is suggested (but see quot.) that the derivation may be from genuina, the “jaw-tooth,” praise being nothing but “jaw”: cf. Parsius, i. 115.]
1891. Wrench, Winchester Word-Book, s.v. Genuine.... He was awfully quilled and GENUINED my task. Possibly from calling a thing genuine. Cf. to blackguard, to lord, &c. But fifty years ago it was a subs. only. [See Appendix.]
Gip (or Gyp), subs. (Cambridge).—A college servant.
1891. Harry Fludyer at Cambridge, 8. My GYP said he thought he knew some one who’d give me eighteen shillings for it.
Girdlestoneites (Charterhouse).—A boarding-house. [From a master’s name.] See Out-houses.
Glope, verb (Winchester: obsolete).—To spit.
Go. To go down, verb (University).—To leave school or college: by special EXEAT (q.v.) or at vacation. Whence TO BE SENT DOWN = to be under discipline; to be rusticated.
1863. H. Kingsley, Austin Elliot, i. 179. How dare you say “deuce” in my presence? You can GO DOWN, my Lord.
1886. Dickens, Dict. of Cambridge, 3. No undergraduate should GO down without obtaining his EXEAT.
1891. Harry Fludyer at Cambridge, 53. I’m thankful to say this Term’s nearly over now.... We shall be able to GO down next week ... which is a blessing.
1898. Stonyhurst Mag., Dec., p. 149, “Life at Oxford.” You will think, then, that most of us do no work. Well, a good many do precious little. Still there is this check. All who do not pass their examinations within a certain time must “GO DOWN,” i.e. they must leave. It wholly depends upon ourselves, then, how much work we do; and it is naturally a much more difficult matter to “read” in this way than when one has regular schools and studies.
Goal, subs. (Winchester).—(1) At football the boy who stands at the centre of each end, acting as umpire; and (2) the score of three points made when the ball is kicked between his legs, or over his head, without his touching it. See Schitt.
c. 1840. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College, p. 138. Midway between each of the two ends of the line was stationed another boy, as umpire (GOAL he was called), who stood with his legs wide apart, and a gown rolled up at each foot: if the ball was kicked directly over his head, or between his legs, without his touching it, it was a GOAL, and scored three for the party that kicked it.
God, subs. 1. (Eton).—A Sixth Form boy. See Appendix.
1881. Pascoe, Life in our Public Schools. A GOD at Eton is probably in a more exalted position, and receives more reverence than will ever afterwards fall to his lot.
2. (Westminster).—The juniors who, at the Westminster Play (q.v.), occupy a back gallery. A proposal was made in 1792 to exclude them from the performance on the grand nights, which, however, was successfully resisted. Whence GOD-KEEPER = a Third Election boy, who acts as deputy monitor, and keeps the gallery deities in order.
1867. Collins, The Public Schools, p. 155. A rushing noise is heard as of a party of inebriated whirlwinds coming up College, and the Di Superi (in vulgar parlance THE GODS) make their appearance. Now is the time to see the GOD-KEEPER in his glory, in kid gloves, cane, and commanding voice: “Here, Jones, go up closer. Room for three or four more in that corner. Tumble-up, Davis.”
Going-out Saturday, subs. (Charterhouse).—See Exeat 2.
Gold Hatband, subs. (old University).—A nobleman undergraduate; a TUFT (q.v.).
1628. Earle, Microcosmography. His companion is ordinarily some stale fellow that has been notorious for an ingle to GOLD HATBANDS, whom hee admires at first, afterwards scornes.
1889. Gentleman’s Mag., June, p. 598. Noblemen at the universities, since known as “tufts,” because of the gold tuft or tassel to their cap, were then known as GOLD HATBANDS.
Golgotha, subs. (old University).—The Dons’ gallery at Cambridge; also a certain part of the theatre at Oxford. [That is, “the place of skulls” (cf. Luke xxiii. 33 and Matt. xxvii. 33); whence the pun, Dons being the heads of houses.]
1730. Jas. Miller, Humours of Oxford, Act ii., p. 23 (2nd ed.). Sirrah, I’ll have you put in the black-book, rusticated—expelled—I’ll have you coram nobis at GOLGOTHA, where you’ll be bedevilled, Muck-worm, you will.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1791. G. Huddesford, Salmagundi (Note on, p. 150). Golgotha, “The place of a Skull,” a name ludicrously affixed to the Place in which the Heads of Colleges assemble.
1808. J. T. Conybeare in C. K. Sharp’s Correspondence (1888), i. 324. The subject then of the ensuing section is Oxford News ... we will begin by GOLGOTHA.... Cole has already obtained the Headship of Exeter, and Mr. Griffiths ... is to have that of University.
Gomer, subs. 1. (Winchester).—A large pewter dish used in College. [Probably from its holding a homer or omer in measure: see quots.]
1610-31. Donne. Not satisfied with his GOMER of manna.
d. 1656. Hall, Satires, Bk. v. He that gave a GOMER to each.
1778. Inventory of Kitchen and Hall. Twenty-four GOMERS (amongst dishes and brass pots).
2. A new hat: specifically, a beaver when first introduced: but see quot., Peals, and Appendix.
1867. Collins, The Public Schools, 68. Top-boots are no longer considered, by young gentlemen of twelve, “your only wear” to go home in, although the term for them—GOMERS (i.e. go-homers)—still survives in the Winchester vocabulary.
Good-breakfast, subs. (Stonyhurst).—A breakfast given to those Distinguished (q.v.) every term: also called Distinction-breakfast. Cf. Do and Good-supper.
Good-creatures, subs. (Charterhouse).—Meat, vegetables, and pudding. [From a quaint old-fashioned “Scholars’ grace”—“Lord, bless to us these thy GOOD-CREATURES,” &c.]
Good-day, subs. (Stonyhurst).—A free day given at the end of the school year to those distinguished in mathematics. There is also a “Rhetoric GOOD DAY,” given to the Rhetoricians (q.v.), and a “Certificate GOOD DAY,” given to candidates for the Higher Certificate Examination.
Good-Four-o’clock, subs. (Stonyhurst: obsolete).—A repast similar in character to a Good-supper and a Good-breakfast (both of which see).
Good-supper, subs. (Stonyhurst).—A supper given for a special reason: e.g. the Choir-supper (that given to members of the Choir); the Actors’-supper (that given to the participants in Shrovetide-plays); the Eleven-supper (to the Cricket eleven after an “out” match), &c. Cf. Do and Good-breakfast.
Goose-match, subs. (Harrow).—A cricket match played between the School Eleven and a team of Old Harrovians on Michaelmas Day, or as near to it as possible. The Eleven opposing the School are called “the geese.” See Appendix.
Gosh, subs. (Winchester).—To spit.
Gown, subs. 1. (Winchester: obsolete).—Coarse brown paper.
2. (University).—The schools as distinguished from the TOWN (q.v.): e.g. Town and Gown.
1847. Thackeray, Punch’s Prize Novelists, “Codlingsby,” p. 232. From the Addenbroke’s hospital to the Blenheim turnpike, all Cambridge was in an uproar—the College gates closed—the shops barricaded—the shop-boys away in support of their brother townsmen—the battle raged, and the GOWN had the worst of the fight.
1853. Bradley, Verdant Green, II., ch. iii. When GOWN was absent, Town was miserable.
1891. Pall Mall Gaz., 30th May, p. 4, c. 3. Town and GOWN joined in harmony.
Gownboy, subs. (Charterhouse).—A scholar on the foundation: they wore at the Charterhouse black Eton jackets, black trousers, shoes called Gowsers (q.v.), and gowns. This distinctive garb was abolished in 1872.
Gownboy-arch (Charterhouse).—An arch near the east end of the chapel, formerly the doorway from Scholars’ Court into Gown-boys. The earliest Old Carthusian name inscribed on it bears date 1778.
Gownboy-cricket, subs. (Charterhouse).—Cricket in which there are twenty bowlers to one batsman, with no fielders.
Gownboys (Charterhouse).—A boarding-house. [Because on migration to Godalming in 1872 nearly all the old Gownboys (q.v.) were received there.]
Gowner, subs. (Winchester).—The Goal (q.v.) at football stood with his legs stretched out, and a gown, rolled up into a ball, at each foot. When the ball was kicked over either of these gowns, without goal’s touching it, this counted two for the party who kicked it.—Mansfield (c. 1840). Also see Goal and Schitt. Now obsolete.
Gownsman (also Gown), subs. (University).—A student.
1800. C. K. Sharpe, in Correspondence (1888), i. 96. A battle between the GOWNSMEN and townspeople ... in spite of the Vice-Chancellor and Proctors.
1850. F. E. Smedley, Frank Fairlegh, ch. xxv. The ancient town of Cambridge, no longer animated by the countless throngs of GOWNSMEN, frowned in its unaccustomed solitude.
1853. Bradley, Verdant Green, III. By the time Mr. Bouncer finished these words, the coach appropriately drew up at the “Mitre,” and the passengers tumbled off amid a knot of GOWNSMEN collected on the pavement to receive them.
1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford. The townsmen ... were met by the GOWNSMEN with settled steady pluck.
Gowsers, subs. (Charterhouse: obsolete).—Shoes.
Grammar, subs. 1. (Stonyhurst).—The Lower Fourth Form.
2. (Harrow).—See Upper School.
Grand-matches, subs. (Stonyhurst).—The three final matches of the Stonyhurst-football (q.v.) season, played always on the Thursday before Shrove-tide, and on the following Monday and Tuesday. These days are school holidays, and in the evenings the great plays of the year are given.
Grass, subs. (Royal Military Academy).—Vegetables.
To be sent to grass, verb. phr. (University).—To be rusticated; to RECEIVE A TRAVELLING SCHOLARSHIP (q.v.).
1794. Gent. Mag., p. 1085. And was very near rustication [at Cambridge] merely for kicking up a row after a beakering party. “Soho, Jack!” briskly rejoined another, “almost presented with a travelling fellowship? very nigh being SENT TO GRASS, hey?”
Greaser, subs. 1. (Durham: obsolete).—A cad.
2. (Winchester: obsolete).—A mode of torture performed by rubbing a boy’s head hard with the knuckles.—Mansfield (c. 1840).
Great-go (or Greats), subs. (Cambridge).—The final examination for the B.A. degree: cf. Little-go. At Oxford, GREATER.
1841. Prince of the New-made Baccalere, Oxford. Great-go is passed.
1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford, ch. x. Both small and GREAT are sufficiently distant to be altogether ignored, if we are that way inclined.
1856-7. Thackeray, King of Brentford’s Test., st. 7. At college, though not fast, Yet his little-go and GREAT-GO, He creditably pass’d.
1871. Morning Advertiser, April 28. Yes, Mr. Lowe has been plucked for his GREAT GO.
1883. Echo, 3rd May, p. 2, c. 4. But few, indeed, are the men who have been in for GREATS during the last twenty years, and who have not blessed Mr. Kitchin for his edition of the Novum Organum.
Grecian, subs. (Christ’s Hospital).—A senior boy.
1870. Blue Budget, March. We have the full sanction and approval of the GRECIANS, and some of them intend even to contribute articles themselves.
1871. The Blue, Aug. Boys are taken at the age of seven years and remain till they are sixteen.... If at their sixteenth year they have shown remarkable aptitude, they are allowed to remain longer, and as GRECIANS—a traditional title, the origin of which is unknown—to pursue more advanced studies and to enjoy certain privileges as to table. [See Appendix.]
Green. 1. (Charterhouse).—The cricket-ground. See Under-green.
2. (Felsted: obsolete).—A Post-Office Order. [From the colour.]
Green-back, subs. (University).—One of Todhunter’s series of mathematical text-books. [Because bound in green cloth. Cf. Blue-ruin = Bohn’s Classical Series.]
Green Book, The (Charterhouse).—A record of the date of entering and leaving the school: this has been somewhat loosely kept, and gaps are conspicuous.
Green-room Boys, subs. phr. (Stonyhurst).—Boys chosen to be the stage-manager’s assistants at the Shrove-tide plays.
Greens, The (Stonyhurst: obsolete).—Two large grass plots, or lawns and shrubberies, on the south front. A cricket-ball hit full pitch into either of these from the opposite end of the playground was known as “A Greener.” Whence GREEN-BOYS = boys who used to look after the “GREENS.”
Greeze, subs. (Westminster).—A crowd.
Greyers, subs. (Harrow).—Grey flannel trousers: worn by all the school not entitled to white Flannels (q.v.) at cricket.
Greyhound, subs. (Cambridge: obsolete).—A member of Clare College; a CLARIAN (q.v.).
1889. Whibley, Cap and Gown, xxviii. The members of Clare ... were called GRAYHOUNDS.
Grind, subs. (common).—(1) Study; reading for an examination. Also as a verb. (2) A plodding student. (3) Athletic sports in general: specifically, a training run. Also as verb = to teach; to instruct; to coach.
1856. Hughes, Tom Brown’s School-days, pt. II. ch. v. “Come along, boys,” cries East, always ready to leave the GRIND, as he called it. Ibid., ch. vii. “The thing to find out,” said Tom meditatively, “is how long one ought to GRIND at a sentence without looking at the crib.”
1872. Chambers’s Jour., April. Joe Rullock, the mighty gymnasiarch, the hero of a hundred GRINDS, the unwearied haunter of the palæstra, could never give the lie to his whole past life, and deny his own gymnastics.
1887. Chambers’s Jour., 14th May, p. 310. Smalls made just such a goal as was required, and the GRIND it entailed was frequently of no slight profit to him.
The Grind, subs. (Cambridge).—The ferry-boat at Chesterton. (Oxford) A diversion popular among the less athletic tutors and undergraduates, which consists in walking by the Banbury Road to the 2-1/2 mile stone, crossing to the Woodstock Road, which is here only a quarter of a mile distant, and so returning to Oxford, occasionally varying the proceeding by reversing the order of the walk. It is, however, probable that the introduction of golf has dealt a severe blow at the popularity of this innocent amusement. Also THE FIVE MILES GRIND.
’Varsity Grind (Oxford).—A steeplechase held at Stratton Audley.
Grind-days, subs. (Loretto).—The GRIND-DAYS occur twice a year: in October and March. Privileged boys, school officers, Sixth and Fifth, and probably Upper Fifth, go by train to various places, such as Peebles, Pomathorn, &c., and walk, perhaps about twenty miles, to some other place, where they dine, returning by train. Some of the rest cross the Pentlands, and the Juniors go up the highest Pentland.
Grinder, subs. (general).—A private tutor; a COACH (q.v.).
1812. Miss Edgeworth, Patronage, ch. iii. Put him into the hands of a clever GRINDER or crammer, and they would soon cram the necessary portion of Latin and Greek into him.
1841. Punch, vol. i. p. 201. Then contriving to accumulate five guineas to pay a GRINDER, he routs out his old note-books from the bottom of his box and commences to read.
1841. A. Smith, “The London Medical Student” in Punch, i. p. 229. G was a GRINDER, who sharpen’d the fools.
1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. v. She sent me down here with a GRINDER. She wants me to cultivate my neglected genius.
Grinding-mill, subs. (general).—The house of a tutor or COACH (q.v.), where students are prepared for an examination.
Groats. To save one’s groats, verb. phr. (old University).—To come off handsomely. [At the Universities nine groats are deposited in the hands of an academic officer by every person standing for a degree, which, if the depositor obtains, with honour, are returned to him.—Grose.]
Grotius-time, subs. (Winchester).—From 7 P.M. to 7.45 P.M. on Sundays, in Cloister-time (q.v.) when Sixth Book (q.v.) and Senior Part (q.v.) went into school to translate the work of that author.—Mansfield (c. 1840). Now obsolete.
Groute, verb (Marlborough and Cheltenham).—To work or study hard; to SWOT (q.v.).
Grovel, subs. (Sherborne).—A scrummage at football.
Grubber, subs. (general).—A tuck-shop. See Lamb’s-tails, Round Othellos, Kill-me-quicks, and Picaninnies.
1899. Public School Mag., Dec., p. 441. The shop is privately managed by Mr. Kimmins, of High Street, Tonbridge [and] is known as “GRUBBER.”
Grubby, subs. (Royal High School, Edin.).—The luncheon room.
Gruff, adj. (Christ’s Hospital).—Low-pitched: of the voice. See quot., and Squeaky.
c. 1844. Reminis. of Christ’s Hospital [The Blue, Aug. 1874]. The voices, in our own peculiar phraseology, being divided into two classes—those who sang “squeaky,” and those who sang GRUFF.
Guarder, subs. (Stonyhurst).—A goal-keeper: at football. Whence SECOND-GUARDER = the “full-back” of Association Football; and THIRD-GUARDER = the “halfback” of Association Football.
Gulf, subs. (Cambridge).—The bottom of a list of “passes,” with the names of those who only just succeed in getting their degree. At Oxford a man who, going in for honours, only gets a pass. Hence as verb (Cambridge) = to place in the GULF; TO BE GULFED = to be on such a list. [Men so placed were not eligible for the Classical Tripos.]
1852. Bristed, Five Tears in an English University, p. 205. Some ten or fifteen men just on the line, not bad enough to be plucked, or good enough to be placed, are put into the GULF, as it is popularly called (the examiners’ phrase is “degrees allowed”), and have their degrees given them, but are not printed in the calendar. Ibid., 297. I discovered that my name was nowhere to be found—that I was GULFED.
1853. Bradley, Verdant Green, pt. III. p. 89. I am not going to let them GULPH me a second time.
1863. H. Kingsley, Austin Elliot, p. 123. The good Professor scolded, predicted that they would all be either GULFED or ploughed.
1865. Sporting Gaz., April 1. A man who was GULFED for mathematical honours was certainly, in olden time, unable to enter for the classical examination; but though the arrangement is altered, the term is not obsolete. A man who is GULFED is considered to know enough mathematics for an ordinary degree, but not enough to be allowed his degree in mathematics only; he is consequently obliged to pass in all the ordinary subjects (except mathematics) for the “poll,” before taking his degree.
1876. Trevelyan, Life of Macaulay (1884), ch. ii. p. 61. When the Tripos of 1822 made its appearance, his name did not grace the list. In short ... Macaulay was GULFED.
1896. Tonbridgian, No. 339, 1124. Poole hopes to get a Third in Honour Mods., and Law hopes to escape a GULF next year in the same.
Gull, subs. (Oxford: obsolete).—A swindler; a trickster. Cf. “Gull-catcher,” of which it is probably an abbreviation.
1825. The English Spy, v. i. p. 161. “You’ll excuse me, sir, but as you are fresh, take care to avoid the GULLS.” “I never understood that GULLS were birds of prey,” said I. “Only in Oxford, sir, and here, I assure you, they bite like hawks.”
Gutter, subs. (Tonbridge).—A scrummage at Rugby football: now nearly obsolete. [Properly the space between the teams in the scrummage.]
Verb (Winchester).—To fall in the water flat on the stomach.
Gymmy, subs. (Manchester Grammar).—The gymnasium.
Gyp (or Gip), subs. (Cambridge).—A college servant. At Oxford, a scout; at Dublin, a skip. [Etymology doubtful: according to Sat. Rev. an abbreviation of Gipsy Joe: according to Cambridge undergraduates, from the Greek γυψ (GUPS) = a vulture; from the creature’s rapacity.]
1794. Gent. Mag., p. 1085. [A Cambridge college servant is called a JIP.]
1803. Gradus ad Cantab., 128. To avoid gate-bills he will be out at night as late as he pleases, ... climb over the college wall, and fee his GYP well.
1842. Tait’s Mag., Oct., “Reminiscences of Coll. Life.” There is attached to colleges and halls a person more useful than ornamental, and better known than paid, whom Oxonians name GYP, from his supposed moral affinity to a vulture (γυψ). The same is in Dublin denominated a Skip, because of the activity which is an indispensable item in his qualifications.
1849. C. Kingsley, Alton Locke, ch. xii. I’ll send you in luncheon as I go through the butteries; then, perhaps, you’d like to come down and see the race. Ask the GYP to tell you the way.
1850. Smedley, Frank Fairleigh, p. 254. Fellow you call the GYP wanted to make me believe you were out—thought I looked too like a governor to be let in, I suppose.
1882. F. Anstey, Vice Versâ, ch. v. Who should we see coming straight down on us but a Proctor with his bull-dogs (not dogs, you know, but the strongest GYPS in the college).
Gyte, subs. (Royal High School, Edin.).—A first year’s student.