Student lingo

By Hermione Gray

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STUDENT life is that tricky time between school and career where teenagers need all the help and support they can get to make the transition to stable adulthood. So, thousands of them are stuck in a campus where drinking copious amounts of alcohol is the most important rite of passage. Not too surprising then, that students have developed a new set of slang words�that largely revolve around drink and drinking rituals.

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Student slang is not a new phenomenon, however.�It has been around since the 18th century.�Some of it was even published in the Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue in 1811. In those days, a drunk was known as an 'ensign bearer' - because his face went as red as the ensign on British ships. Drinking heartily was to 'sluice your gob' and the 19th century version of strong beer was called a 'stingo'.

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Linguist Dr Tony McEnery, of the University of Lancaster, toured campuses recently to assemble a dictionary of modern student phrases. He found that much of today's student slang is an extension of rhyming slang.

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For example, when it comes to grades, a 2:2 is a Desmond, after South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu. A Geoff (Hurst) for first, a 2:1 is a Trevor (Nunn) and a third is a Douglas (Hurd). Or, of course, they could end up with a Dan (Quayle) fail.

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Tony McEnery's findings have been compiled on the student website student-world.co.uk.

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