The Juniors vainly attempted to show
That Sophs and Seniors were somewhat slow
In talent and ability.
Sophomore Independent, Union College, Nov. 1854.
SLOW-COACH. A dull, stupid fellow.
SLUM. A word once in use at Yale College, of which a graduate of the year 1821 has given the annexed explanation. "That noted dish to which our predecessors, of I know not what date, gave the name of slum, which was our ordinary breakfast, consisting of the remains of yesterday's boiled salt-beef and potatoes, hashed up, and indurated in a frying-pan, was of itself enough to have produced any amount of dyspepsia. There are stomachs, it may be, which can put up with any sort of food, and any mode of cookery; but they are not those of students. I remember an anecdote which President Day gave us (as an instance of hasty generalization), which would not be inappropriate here: 'A young physician, commencing practice, determined to keep an account of each case he had to do with, stating the mode of treatment and the result. His first patient was a blacksmith, sick of a fever. After the crisis of the disease had passed, the man expressed a hankering for pork and cabbage. The doctor humored him in this, and it seemed to do him good; which was duly noted in the record. Next a tailor sent for him, whom he found suffering from the same malady. To him he prescribed pork and cabbage; and the patient died. Whereupon, he wrote it down as a general law in such cases, that pork and cabbage will cure a blacksmith, but will kill a tailor.' Now, though the son of Vulcan found the pork and cabbage harmless, I am sure that slum would have been a match for him."—Scenes and Characters at College, New Haven, 1847, p. 117.
SLUMP. German schlump; Danish and Swedish slump, a hap or chance, an accident; that is, a fall.
At Harvard College, a poor recitation.
SLUMP. At Harvard College, to recite badly; to make a poor recitation.
In fact, he'd rather dead than dig;
he'd rather slump than squirt.
Poem before the Y.H. of Harv. Coll., 1849.
Slumping is his usual custom,
Deading is his road to fame.—MS. Poem.
At recitations, unprepared, he slumps,
Then cuts a week, and feigns he has the mumps.
MS. Poem, by F.E. Felton.
The usual signification of this word is given by Webster, as follows: "To fall or sink suddenly into water or mud, when walking on a hard surface, as on ice or frozen ground, not strong enough to bear the person." To which he adds: "This legitimate word is in common and respectable use in New England, and its signification is so appropriate, that no other word will supply its place."