Notions
A notion is a manner or tradition peculiar to Winchester College. The word notion is also used to refer to unique and peculiar words used (with diminishing frequency) in the school. An example is "toytime", meaning prep or homework. It can also refer to more recent slang, some of which features the altering of vowels in certain words for facetious emphasis.
The Notions Test was until recently an important tradition in most houses, in which juniors were required to answer questions about notions. Although now banned on various grounds including the European human rights conventions, the test was usually administered to new boys during their first term at the school by more senior boys, and aimed to test and demonstrate their familiarity with the vocabulary, history and traditions of the school. College Notions was more elaborate and continued for a few years longer than the Commoner tests. It took the form of an end-of-term celebration and marked the point at which new Collegemen formally became known as Jun: Men.
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Famous quotes containing the word notions:
“Assumptions that racism is more oppressive to black men than black women, then and now ... based on acceptance of patriarchal notions of masculinity.”
—bell hooks (b. c. 1955)
“the full analysis of the notions of saying something and understanding what one said inevitably involves a concept which, as I will show in detail, essentially corresponds to the Cartesian idea of thought.”
—Zeno Vendler (b. 1921)
“The mass believes that it has the right to impose and to give force of law to notions born in the café.”
—José Ortega Y Gasset (1883–1955)