Notions (Winchester College) - Examples

Examples

Some notions are created by shortening phrases - for example, the Dons' Common Room Notice Board became Do Co Ro No Bo; other notions derive from Latin - for example, foricas (Latin for 'lavatory') was shortened to fo. Thus a pupil might comment, "It's fortunate that the Do Co Ro has its own fo." Abbreviations are often indicated by a colon, as in 18th-century handwriting, for example "Sen: Co: Prae:" (Senior Commoner Prefect), or else by a macron, for example "mathmā" and "examinā". There are slight differences of vocabulary between College and Commoners, the College dialect being richer.

Some more examples of notions are:

• Man: pupil (of any age)
• Toll: run
• Bogle (sometimes spelled bogwheel): bicycle - hence the joke about not being allowed to ride one's bicycle down Canon Street, a narrow and steep street in the campus, formerly reputed to be home to prostitutes, e.g. riding one's bogle down Canon Street.
• Div: class or form
• Lob: cry (obsolete)
• Fo: lavatory
• To mug: to work, giving the name Mugging Hall to the room in every house (except College) where work is done in Toys. Mugging down is working in the evenings after preces. cf "to muzz" at Westminster School
• Toytime: homework or prep.
• Tégé (Commoner houses; pronounced "teejay") and pater (for Collegemen): a Middle Part (second year) man appointed to look after a Jun Man.
• Non licet: forbidden (hence "Non Licet Gate" which used to be for pupils who were expelled, they were not permitted through Outer Gate.)

Some notions involve folk etymology.

• Scob, referring to a type of chest formerly used as a desk, exists in Middle English and is derived from Latin "scabellum"; but 19th-century notions books explain it as containing the sounds of "box" backwards.
• Remedy (usually shortened to "rem", most notably in "half-rem"), meaning a day's holiday, is derived from Latin "remedium", rest or refreshment, but was formerly thought to be derived from "remī day", quasi "dies remissionis".
• Firk, an old dialect word meaning to expel, gave rise to a legend that an expelled pupil had his clothes handed to him through the gate by Old Mill on a pitchfork (Latin furca).
• Toys, meaning a study cubicle, is derived from the French toise, fathom, referring to the six feet of wall space formerly allotted to each member of a chamber. However, in Chamber Rolls it is rendered into Latin as nuces, meaning "toys" as in children's playthings. (There is no connection with the house "Toye's", though "toyes" was formerly a common misspelling for the word in its study cubicle meaning.)