DULCE DECUS. Latin; literally, sweet honor. At Williams College a name given by a certain class of students to the game of whist; the reason for which is evident. Whether Mæcenas would have considered it an honor to have had the compliment of Horace, "O et præsidium et dulce decus meum," transferred as a title for a game at cards, we leave for others to decide.
DUMMER JUNGE,—literally, stupid youth,—among German students "is the highest and most cutting insult, since it implies a denial of sound, manly understanding and strength of capacity to him to whom it is applied."—Howitt's Student Life of Germany, Am. ed., p. 127.
DUN. An importunate creditor who urges for payment. A character not wholly unknown to collegians.
Thanks heaven, flings by his cap and gown, and shuns
A place made odious by remorseless duns.
The College, in Blackwood's Mag., May, 1849.
E.
EGRESSES. At the older American colleges, when charges were made and excuses rendered in Latin, the student who had left before the conclusion of any of the religious services was accused of the misdemeanor by the proper officer, who made use of the word egresses, a kind of barbarous second person singular of some imaginary verb, signifying, it is supposed, "you went out."
Much absence, tardes and egresses,
The college-evil on him seizes.
Trumbull's Progress of Dullness, Part I.
EIGHT. On the scale of merit, at Harvard College, eight is the highest mark which a student can receive for a recitation. Students speak of "getting an eight," which is equivalent to saying, that they have made a perfect recitation.
But since the Fates will not grant all eights,
Save to some disgusting fellow
Who'll fish and dig, I care not a fig,
We'll be hard boys and mellow.
MS. Poem, W.F. Allen.
Numberless the eights he showers
Full on my devoted head.—MS. Ibid.