Undergraduate Lingo
CAMPUS lingo is frequently a source of amusement to the person interested in undergraduate mores and morals, and it occasionally is a source of amazement to Dean Joseph L. McDonald.
Recently the Dean had on the carpet a student who was charged with "irresponsible drinking." The term is official lingo for a condition that the students describe much more succinctly and colorfully in a dozen different ways - about half of them printable in a family magazine.
The student told Dean McDonald that he was not guilty of "irresponsible drinking." He said the charges were without basis because, "On the evening in question I went over to the fraternity house and bird dogged another guy's date. Now I couldn't possibly have done that if I were guilty of irresponsible drinking."
The Dean did a double take, reluctantly descended from his majestic position to ask what the student meant, and now knows that "to bird dog a date" is to steal another guy's girl friend from under his nose. It is a fine art, and the challenge of the chase is more interesting than the accomplishment of the fact.
The student's explanation, incidentally, was reasonable to the members of the Judiciary Committee of the Undergraduate Council. At a later hearing, in which the same defense was presented, the student's case was dismissed.
There is a noticeable difference between campus lingo of the present era and that of pre-World War II. In those happy-go-lucky days, campus lingo was more ebullient than it is now. Today it is still lively, but more sophisticated. It is used more sparingly and with more telling effect.
A "loser," for example, is anybody or anything that is "out of it." The term "loser" is a variable expression for a bad weekend, a boring professor, a dull movie, a lost game, a colorless personality, a bad run of luck at cards.
A "loser" is not necessarily a booker, bookie, greaser or grind. But a "bookie," who obviously is not the kind who takes bets, may most definitely be "out of it." Somebody who is "real loose" is a non-booker. He does not necessarily receive low marks. And the student who gets good marks with little apparent effort "plays it cool."
In his letter to the editor in this issue, Sidney C. Hayward has expressed his own amusement at the way students refer to their grades. The fact is that when students receive "losing" grades, they have an additional store of slang, not invective, that they may draw upon, but this no student would repeat to the Secretary of the College. They won't even report it to me.
Liquor and girls are the two areas to which the most widely assorted slang is applied. For example, "bombed out" equals "ploughed" equals "drowned" equals "lost" equals "plastered." From this list do not get the idea that today's students necessarily drink more than former generations. After downing a few, human nature being what it is, imaginations are stirred, particularly in the field of phrase coining.
A "lost weekend" doesn't necessarily mean what it did in the original book. More likely the student didn't have as good a time as he expected. It is likely to include at least one "pig party," a gathering in which none of the truly attractive girls happened to appeal to the undergraduate.
Along this line, such a weekend could be "ipsy-pipsy," depending on the inflection of the voice. In normal usage, "ipsy-pipsy" is a slightly humorous rendition of "fabulous." But if "ipsy-pipsy" is spoken in tones of sarcasm or despair, it can have an opposite meaning. A student can say with jubilation that an exam was "ipsy-pipsy," or in the depths of despondency over having "eagled" it, he could also say it was "ipsy-pipsy."
Speaking of exams, the multiple-choice test today is particularly favored by professors. Students refer to this type of exam as a "many guess." The term is generally used with derision. An essay-type exam is always a "bull" exam, or more commonly the parent word from which the shorter version is derived.
When a student is all dressed up in the "Ivy League look" of charcoal flannels and odd jacket, he is either "tweedy" or "nubby." But surprisingly there are few slang phrases applied to dress. It appears that students just aren't interested in what they wear.
No area of campus activity is immune to the coiners of the apt phrase. A "sandbag" is a participant in the fraternity hums who really can't sing and merely stands with the singers and mouths the words. When asked how he is participating in the hums, a student might respond, "Oh, I sing tenor bag."
An athlete is either a "jock" or a "hammerhead," and the student who grows nervous before a test, whether mental or physical, is said to get "tensed up." In more extreme cases, particularly in the academic areas, the student may "psych up." The admonition, "Don't psych up, boy," may be applied to all sorts of situations - problems over studies, girls and money.
And in saying good-by, the alliterative "See you later, alligator" is often heard. But this is a holdover from high school and is regarded with a disdainful air by the more sophisticated. With them the proper farewell at Dartmouth, which does not have anything remotely resembling a quadrangle or yard, is "See you around the quad."
