Strue, subs. (general).—A construe. See Con.
Superd. To be superd, verb. phr. (Harrow).—To be superannuated.
Swack, subs. (Christ’s Hospital).—Deception. Whence To swack up = to deceive; to take in.
Swagger (or Side), subs. (Harrow).—(1) Appropriating privileges to which one has no right; and (2) using peculiar privileges which others may not use. Etiquette in this respect is very complex.
1898. Warner, Harrow School, 280. The rules of “SWAGGER” are most complex, like other traditional and unwritten codes, and in them a new boy is apt to find himself entangled. He goes out with his umbrella rolled up, and he finds he is swaggering; or he carries it by its middle, or under his arm, or he walks on the middle terrace after chapel, or he innocently wears his “blues” open when it is hot, or turns his trousers up when it is wet, and again he is swaggering. Lady visitors sometimes think small boys at Harrow rude. It is not rudeness which leads boys to stick close to the wall, even when coming up covered with mud from football, and shoulder the world into the gutter, it is modesty; to walk in the road is SWAGGER. To loiter at the house door, or to sing or whistle in the passages, and to wear a hat in the house are also forms of SWAGGER.
Taff, subs. (Christ’s Hospital: Hertford).—A potato.
Talker, subs. (Harrow).—One who cannot sing in time.
1898. Howson and Warner, Harrow School, 208. Then followed solos from those who could sing and those who could not—it made no difference. The latter class were called TALKERS, and every boy was encouraged to stand up and “talk it out.”
Tap, subs. (Eton).—Originally the Christopher (q.v.). Now the only place recognised by the authorities where a boy can get beer.