A Collection of College Words and Customs

by Benjamin Homer Hall

To get up a subject, is to make one's self thoroughly master of it.—Bristed.

SUB-RECTOR. A rector's deputy or substitute.—Walton, Webster.

SUB-SIZAR. In the University of Cambridge, Eng., formerly an order of students lower than the sizars.

Masters of all sorts, and all ages,
Keepers, subcizers, lackeys, pages.
Poems of Bp. Corbet, p. 22.

There he sits and sees
How lackeys and subsizers press
And scramble for degrees.
Ibid., p. 88.

See under SIZAR.

SUCK. At Middlebury College, to cheat at recitation or examination by using ponies, interliners, or helps of any kind.

SUPPLICAT. Latin; literally, he supplicates. In the English universities, a petition; particularly a written application with a certificate that the requisite conditions have been complied with.—Webster.

A Supplicat, says the Gradus ad Cantabrigiam, is "an entreaty to be admitted to the degree of B.A.; containing a certificate that the Questionist has kept his full number of terms, or explaining any deficiency. This document is presented to the caput by the father of his college."

SURPLICE DAY. An occasion or day on which the surplice is worn by the members of a university.