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

Tetra, subs. (Felsted: obsolete).—A “record”: TO GO BEYOND THE TETRA = to beat the record. [A stuttering pronunciation of, some say, “tremendous,” others, “extraordinary.”] See Appendix.

Thick, subs. (Winchester and Rugby).—A stupid fellow. Also as adj.

1856. Hughes, Tom Brown’s School-days, I. vii. What a THICK I was to come! Here we are, dead beat, and yet I know we’re close to the run in, if we knew the country.

Thicker, subs. (Harrow).—Thucydides: translated in the Upper School.

Third Elevens (or Thirders), subs. (Harrow).—A house Second Eleven (q.v.) playing another house Second Eleven at football.

Third-guarder, subs. (Stonyhurst).—See Guarder.

Thoke, subs. (Winchester).—Rest; lying in bed. Hence as verb = to lie in bed late. [Prov. Eng. thoky = sluggish.] Whence TO THOKE UPON = to anticipate with pleasure; THOKESTER = an idler.

1847. Halliwell, Archaic Words, s.v. Thokish. Slothful; sluggish. East. In Lincolnshire it is usually THOKY.

1891. Wrench, Winchester Word-Book, s.v. Thoke. I’m THOKING ON next week: what a THOKE it will be, with a Leave-out-day, a Hatch-THOKE, and a half remedy.

1899. Public School Mag., Dec., p. 465. He attributed his success—or, at any rate, his long survival—to the art of “THOKING”—in the vulgar tongue, “slacking”—which he had laboriously acquired during his first years of office.