1598. Shakspeare, 2 Hen. IV., i. 2. I am glad to see your Lordship ABROAD. I heard say your Lordship was sicke. I hope your Lordship goes ABROAD by aduice.
1761. Letter [Wrench]. I have been exceeding ill ... am not just got ABROAD again.
Abs, adj. (Winchester).—Absent: placed against the name when away from school. [From absunt on Rolls.]
Verb. To take (get, or go) away. Formerly (circa 1840) to ABS a tolly (candle) = to put it out; it now = to take it away whether lighted or unlighted, the modern NOTION (q.v.) for putting it out being to “dump” it. As a neuter verb ABS is generally used in the imperative: e.g. “ABS!” “Oh, do ABS!” Sometimes, however, a fellow is said TO ABS quickly, and MESS THINGS (q.v.) are ABSED, or put away. To HAVE ONE’S WIND ABSED = to have it taken away by a violent blow in the stomach.
Absence, subs. (Eton).—Names-calling. [This takes place at 3 and 6 P.M. on half-holidays; at 11.30, 3, and 6 P.M. on whole-holidays; at 6 P.M. only in summer half.]
1867. Collins, The Public Schools, p. 174. And the elevens were made up, as they best might, out of such adventurous spirits as dared to “skip” roll-calls and ABSENCE for the purpose. Eton, when the losers, attributed the fact to the want of their best men in consequence of these difficulties.
Absit, subs. (Cambridge).—See quot.
1886. Dickens’s Dictionary of the University of Cambridge, p. 3. Every undergraduate wishing to leave Cambridge for a whole day, not including a night, must obtain an ABSIT from his tutor. Permission to go away for a longer period, either at the end of the term or in the middle, is called an “exeat,” and no undergraduate should go down without obtaining his “exeat.”
Academia, subs. (Stonyhurst).—See Appendix.
Academy, subs. (Stonyhurst).—An exhibition given at the end of every quarter: the first by Rhetoric (q.v.), the second by Poetry (q.v.), the third by Syntax (q.v.), the last, called the Great Academies, by all three combined. This last is the crowning act of the school year, being attended by many visitors, and is followed by the annual distribution of prizes. Hence Academy Room = the large hall in which the chief exhibitions, displays, concerts, plays, &c., are held. [The name may have come from the school at Liège, which was known as the “Academy”; but more probably it is of much older date, being derived from the “Academiæ” of the Ratio Studiorum Societatis Jesu.]