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

Chuck, subs. (Westminster). See quot.

1864. Hotten, Slang Dict., s.v. A schoolboy’s treat.

Chucks! intj. (general).—A signal of a master’s approach. A French equivalent is Vesse!

Circum. To go circum, verb. phr. (Winchester). See quot.

1867. Collins, The Public Schools, p. 23 [temp. 1570]. At five the school was dismissed, and the whole resident society—warden, fellows, masters, and scholars—went in procession round the cloisters and the whole interior circuit of the college, which was called GOING CIRCUM. Thus they passed into the hall, where a supper of mutton was served—one dispar to every three boys.

Clacken, subs. (Royal High School, Edin.).—A wooden bat about two feet long with a thin handle and rounded head (e.g.

), flat on both sides, originally used for the game of hails. The game is no longer played at the school, but survives in the Edin. Academy. [A “Hail” in Scotland denotes the place from which a ball is driven off at the commencement of a game. “Clacken” is from “clack,” the clapper of a mill.]

Clarian, subs. (Cambridge).—A member of Clare Hall, Cambridge; also Greyhound (q.v.).

1889. C. Whibley, Cap and Gown. E’en stuke-struck CLARIANS strove to stoop.