My duty now obliges me, however reluctantly, to bring you before the Seniority.—Alma Mater, Vol. I. p. 75.
SENIOR OPTIME. Those who occupy the second rank in honors at the close of the final examination at the University of Cambridge, Eng., are denominated Senior Optimes.
The Second Class, or that of Senior Optimes, is larger in number [than that of the Wranglers], usually exceeding forty, and sometimes reaching above sixty. This class contains a number of disappointments, many who expect to be Wranglers, and some who are generally expected to be.—Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ., Ed. 2d, p. 228.
The word is frequently abbreviated.
The Pembroker … had the pleasant prospect of getting up all his mathematics for a place among the Senior Ops.—Ibid., p. 158.
He would get just questions enough to make him a low Senior Op. —Ibid., p. 222.
SENIOR ORATION. "The custom of delivering Senior Orations," says a correspondent, "is, I think, confined to Washington and Jefferson Colleges in Pennsylvania. Each member of the Senior Class, taking them in alphabetical order, is required to deliver an oration before graduating, and on such nights as the Faculty may decide. The public are invited to attend, and the speaking is continued at appointed times, until each member of the Class has spoken."
SENIOR SOPHISTER. At the University of Cambridge, Eng., a student in the third year of his residence is called a Senior Soph or Sophister.
2. In some American colleges, a member of the Senior Class, i.e. of the fourth year, was formerly designated a Senior Sophister.
See SOPHISTER.