A glossary of all things Oxford. Borrows a lot from the University’s official glossary, but includes some overlooked terms.
(This page still under construction)
A
Aegrotat: Pass on examinations granted on medical grounds.
B
Battels: College bills. Paid monthly or termly.
Blue: A form of recognition by the university of sporting merit. Awarded by the Blues Committee in Full and Half variants. Entitles you to a blazer.
Bulldog: Proctors’ Officers, formerly the Oxford University Police. The people in bowler hats at most university ceremonies.
Buttery: What some colleges call the place where you collect your meals for self-service hall. No prizes for guessing what they used to store.
C
Catz: St. Catherine’s College.
ChCh: Christ Church, abbreviated. Also known as ‘The House’ (from the Latin Aedes Christi). Never Christ Church ‘College’.
Collection: Beginning-of-term tests, usually on the last term’s material.
College: A constituent body of the collegiate university. Distinguished at the technical level from a ‘Permanent Private Hall’ (PPH) and a ‘Society’.
College, Regent’s Park: RPC is not a college but a PPH.
Coming up/going down: Arriving or leaving Oxford.
Commoner: Class of student, not social but financial. Commoners paid ‘commons’ and therefore were fee-paying, as opposed to scholarship-receiving ‘scholars’, students.
Convocation: Body comprising all graduates of the university. Membership is automatic on graduating. Formerly open only to Masters of Arts and those degrees deemed equivalent.
D
Don: A tutor, or any academic giving you tuition, or any senior academic otherwise. From the Latin dominus, ‘lord’.
DPhil: Doctor of Philosophy. PhD everywhere else.
E
Eights: Rowing races held at the end of Trinity Term (‘Summer Eights’). No prizes for guessing how many people there are in a boat (trick question, as there are nine: eight rowers and one cox[wain], who steers).
Exhibition: A slightly lesser form of scholarship, usually won through performance in first-year exams. May entitle the possessor (called an ‘Exhibitioner’) to a scholars’ gown.
F
Fellows: The people who run the college. Usually academics, may be coterminous with ‘governing body’.
Finals: Final exams at the end of your course. A ‘Finalist’ takes them.
G
Greats: Classics, or Literae Humaniores (more human letters). One of the most ancient degrees at Oxford, posed in contrast to divinity (the study of divine letters, i.e. the Bible).
H
Head of House: The head of a College. Can be called Principal, Provost, President, Rector, Dean, etc.
High Table: Often literally elevated, a table at the head of a hall where Fellows sit during formal dinners.
Hilary Term: The second term in an academic year but the first term in a calendar year. This occasionally catches people out.
I
Isis: That part of the River Thames that flows through Oxford. Supposedly from the Latin Thameisis.
J
Junior Common Room: Or JCR, the corporate body of all undergraduate students in a college. Also may refer to a physical room, or the committee thereof.
Junior Member: A Student Member of the University, undergraduate or postgraduate. Historically a Master of Arts became a Senior Member.
T
‘The’: Often appended to the names of important roads. The Broad (Broad Street), The High (High Street), The Turl (Turl Street).