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

Sog, subs. (Charterhouse and Winchester).—Twenty shillings; a sovereign.

Solo, subs. (Winchester).—A solitary walk—without a SOCIUS (q.v.).

Soph, subs. (Cambridge).—A student of the second or third year; the distinctions are: A first year man = Freshman (q.v.); second year = Junior SOPH; third year = Senior SOPH.

1870. Goodrich [Webster, Unabridged, s.v. Sophomose]. This word has generally been considered an American barbarism, but it was probably introduced into our country at a very early period from the University of Cambridge, England. Among the cant terms at that University, as given in the “Gradus ad Cantabrigiam,” we find SOPH-MOR as the next distinctive appellation to Freshman. It is added that a writer in the Gentleman’s Magazine thinks Mor an abbreviation of the Greek μωρία, introduced at a time when the “Encomium Moriæ,” the “Praise of Folly,” by Erasmus, was so generally used. The ordinary derivation of the word, from σοφός and μωρός would seem, therefore, to be incorrect. The young SOPHS at Cambridge appear formerly to have received the adjunct mor, μωρός, to their names, either as one they courted for the reason mentioned above, or as one given them in sport for the supposed exhibition of inflated feeling in entering upon their new honours. The term thus implied seems to have passed at a very early period from Cambridge in England to Cambridge in America, as the next distinctive appellation to Freshmen, and thus to have been attached to the second of the four classes in our American colleges, while it has now almost ceased to be known, even as a cant word, at the parent institution in England from whence it came.

Sorry, intj. (Winchester).—“I beg your pardon.” [Not now confined to Winchester.—Wrench.]

Soup-ticket, subs. (King Edward’s, Birm.).—A card issued to a boy set down for Saturday afternoon detention: a DETÉN (q.v.).

Spadge, subs. (Christ’s Hospital).—An affected walk. Also as verb. Formerly merely “to walk.” [Cf. Lat. spatiari; Ger. spatzieren.]

Spange, adj. (Royal Military Academy).—New; elegant; smart: e.g. “to look SPANGE,” “a SPANGE uniform.”

Sparrow’s-hall, subs. (Stonyhurst: obsolete).—The old infirmary. [The head-bailiff was one Sparrow, and here the servants received their wages from him.]

Spec, subs. (Winchester).—Something enjoyable or pleasant; a good thing. On spec = in consequence.