The Public School Word-book / A conribution to to a historical glossary of words phrases and turns of expression obsolete and in current use peculiar to our great public schools together with some that have been or are modish at the universities

by John Stephen Farmer

Impo, subs. (Charterhouse).—An imposition.

Impositor, subs. (Sherborne: obsolete).—A school Præfect: sixteenth century.

Inferior, subs. (Winchester).—Any member of the school not a Præfect (q.v.).

c. 1840. Mansfield, School-Life, p. 28. The Præfect of Hall ... was looked upon by the INFERIORS with something more than a becoming awe and reverence.

Inform, verb (Charterhouse).—To sneak; to show up.

Infra-dig, adj. (Winchester).—Scornful; proud: e.g. “He sported INFRA-DIG duck,” or “I am INFRA-DIG to it.”

Island, The (Rugby).—A mound or “tumulus” in the Close.

1867. Collins, The Public Schools, p. 372. They [the school volunteer corps] had not only parades, but sham fights—if a fight could be called a sham from which the combatants retired with broken heads and bloody noses—attacking and defending the Doctor’s farmyard on the little ISLAND between what were then the two Closes.

Isthmus-of-Suez, subs. (Cambridge).—The bridge at St. John’s College, Cambridge, leading from the grounds to one of the Courts, familiarly known as the “Bridge of Sighs.” Also The Bridge of Grunts. [From its slight similarity to the Venetian example. Sues = swine, in punning reference to the Johnian Hogs (q.v.).] See Crackle and Hog.

1857. Punch, June 20. A resident Fellowe he was, I wis, He had no cure of Soules; And across ye BRIDGE OF SUES he’d come From playinge ye game of bowles.