A Collection of College Words and Customs

by Benjamin Homer Hall

The Pembroker was booked to lead the Tripos.—Bristed's Five
Years in an Eng. Univ., Ed. 2d, p. 158.

PENE. Latin, almost, nearly. A candidate for admission to the
Freshman Class is called a Pene, that is, almost a Freshman.

PENNILESS BENCH. Archdeacon Nares, in his Glossary, says of this phrase: "A cant term for a state of poverty. There was a public seat so called in Oxford; but I fancy it was rather named from the common saying, than that derived from it."

Bid him bear up, he shall not
Sit long on penniless bench.
Mass. City Mad., IV. 1.

That everie stool he sate on was pennilesse bench, that his robes were rags.—Euphues and his Engl., D. 3.

PENSIONER. French, pensionnaire, one who pays for his board. In the University of Cambridge, Eng., and in that of Dublin, a student of the second rank, who is not dependent on the foundation for support, but pays for his board and other charges. Equivalent to COMMONER at Oxford, or OPPIDANT of Eton school.—Brande. Gent. Mag., 1795.

PERUVIAN. At the University of Vermont, a name by which the students designate a lady; e.g., "There are two hundred Peruvians at the Seminary"; or, "The Peruvians are in the observatory." As illustrative of the use of this word, a correspondent observes: "If John Smith has a particular regard for any one of the Burlington ladies, and Tom Brown happens to meet the said lady in his town peregrinations, when he returns to College, if he meets John Smith, he (Tom) says to John, 'In yonder village I espied a Peruvian'; by which John understands that Tom has had the very great pleasure of meeting John's Dulcinea."

PETTY COMPOUNDER. At Oxford, one who pays more than ordinary fees for his degree.

"A Petty Compounder," says the Oxford University Calendar, "must possess ecclesiastical income of the annual value of five shillings, or property of any other description amounting in all to the sum of five pounds, per annum."—Ed. 1832, p. 92.

PHEEZE, or FEEZE. At the University of Vermont, to pledge. If a student is pledged to join any secret society, he is said to be pheezed or feezed.