1900. Daily Telegraph, 23rd March, 8. 7. As in the old days of Colonel Newcome, “ADSUM,” or “Always ready,” is still the watch-word of the Charterhouse, whose authorities have issued a neatly-printed list of Old Carthusians serving in South Africa, in a cover of the school colours.
1900. Tod, Charterhouse, p. 97. Adsum is the name of a new institution.... There was no occasion for it when the school was in London, and none could pass beyond the school precincts. Colonel Newcome must have answered ADSUM at prayers only.
Æger. See Ægrotat.
Æger-room, subs. (Felsted).—The sick-room. See Ægrotat.
Ægrotat (or Æger), subs. (University).—(1) A medical certificate excusing attendance. (2) The degree taken by those so excused. Reading Ægrotat = leave taken (generally in December) to read for one’s degree. [Lat. ægrotare.]
1794. Gent. Mag., p. 1085. They [at Cambridge] sported an ÆGROTAT, and they sported a new coat!
1853. Bradley, Verdant Green, iv. “That there’s the ‘All, sir, that is,—where you dines, sir, leastways when you ain’t ‘Æger,’ or elseweer.” Ibid., viii.—“Not very well, Robert, thank you. I—my head aches, and I’m afraid I shall not be able to get up for chapel.”... “If you’ll leave it to me, sir, I’ll make it all right for you, I will. Of course you’d like to take out an ÆGER, sir; and I can bring you your Commons just the same.”
1864. Babbage, Passages from the Life of a Philosopher, 37. I sent my servant to the apothecary for a thing called an ÆGROTAT, which I understood ... meant a certificate that I was indisposed.
1870. Chambers’s Journal, June 18, p. 395. Dick laughed. “I’ll get the receipt from him. I often want a good thing for an ÆGER.”
1888. H. Smart, in Temple Bar, February, p. 213. “Instead of applying for leave to my tutor, I had resorted to the old device of pricking ÆGER.”