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

Coy, adv. (Sherborne).—Shy.

Crackle (or Crackling), subs. (University).—The velvet bars on the gowns of the Johnian “Hogs” (q.v.). [From a resemblance to the scored rind on roast pork.] The covered bridge between one of the courts and the grounds of John’s is called the Isthmus of Suez (Latin sus, a swine).

1885. Cuthbert Bede, in Notes and Queries, 6 S., xi. 414. The word CRACKLE refers to the velvet bars on the students’ gowns.

Cram, subs. (general).—An adventitious aid to study; a translation; a crib. As verb = to study at high pressure. Hence, CRAMMER = a COACH (q.v.); a GRINDER (q.v.); and CRAMMING = studying hard.

1803. Gradus ad Cantab., s.v.

1812. Miss Edgeworth, Patronage, ch. iii. Put him into the hands of a clever grinder or CRAMMER, and they would soon cram the necessary portion of Latin and Greek into him.

1825. Hone, Every-Day Book, Feb. 22. Shutting my room door ... and CRAMMING Euc.

1841. Punch, vol. i. p. 201, col. 1. Aspirants to honours in law, physic, or divinity, each know the value of private CRAMMING.

1844. Puck, p. 13. Though for Great Go and for Small, I teach Paley, CRAM and all.

1853. Bradley (“C. Bede”), Verdant Green, pt. II. p. 68. The infatuated Mr. Bouncer madly persisted ... in going into the school clad in his examination coat, and padded over with a host of CRAMS.