1650. Howell, Familiar Letters [Nares]. I am but a FRESHMAN yet in France, therefore I can send you no news, but that all is here quiet, and ’tis no ordinary news, that the French should be quiet.
1671. Cotgrave, Wit’s Interpreter, p. 221. First, if thou art a FRESHMAN, and art bent To bear love’s arms, and follow Cupid’s tent.
1767. Colman, Oxonian in Town, ii. 3. And now I find you as dull and melancholy as a FRESHMAN at college after a jobation.
1841. Lever, Charles O’Malley, ch. xiv. “This is his third year,” said the Doctor, “and he is only a FRESHMAN, having lost every examination.”
1853. Bradley, Verdant Green, iii. Mr. Green saw at a glance that all the passengers were Oxford men, dressed in every variety of Oxford fashion, and exhibiting a pleasing diversity of Oxford manners. Their private remarks on the two new-comers were, like stage “asides,” perfectly audible. “Decided case of governor!” said one. “Undoubted ditto of FRESHMAN!” observed another.
1891. Harry Fludyer at Cambridge, 55. A lot of FRESHMEN got together after Hall (it was a Saints’ day, and they’d been drinking audit) and went and made hay in Marling’s rooms.
1891. Sporting Life, Mar. 20. The mile, bar accidents, will be a gift to B. C. Allen, of Corpus, who has more than maintained the reputation he gained as a FRESHER.
1895. Felstedian, Dec., 178. The new trousers and immaculate brown boots of the “FRESHER” are suffering terribly from the slush.
1898. Stonyhurst Mag., Dec., p. 149, “Life at Oxford.” Three Seniors were entertaining some fifteen or more FRESHERS.
Adj. (University).—Of, or pertaining to, a FRESHMAN, or a first year student.