I remember 'uni' having taken over from 'varsity' by the time I was a freshman in 1967. The categories then were oxbridge, red brick, and the new universities such as Sussex, Lancaster, Essex. I didn't see any of the adjectives as pejorative. Cambridge, Manchester, and Sussex were all good choices for Biochemistry. I remember going through reviews of the courses at many universities and discussing relative merits with other 6th formers. The internet will have transformed this. Probably, UCCA no longer exists, and if it is like Aus, you don't get interviewed by the faculty before being offerred a place anymore.
John "There are two types of problems: those that solve themselves, and those which you can do nothing about" Isabel Allende's grandmother
Posts: 1710 | Location: Mullumbimby, NSW, Australia | Registered: 26 March 2003
I remember 'uni' having taken over from 'varsity' by the time I was a freshman in 1967.
Really? I was a 'fresher' in 1971, and don't remember the term being used, either by my fellow Durham students or by anyone at school: I'd always seen it as something far more recent - Panda's explanation fitted my perception. But maybe we were just very old fashioned in Durham...
John may of course be right about Australia - that's the point. "Varsity" was dead by the end of WW2, I think, other than as the name of the Cambridge student paper. But "uni" was unheard of until about 15-20 years ago in the UK. "Neighbours" is definitely the culprit (and probably for Upspeak as well).
As for the Ivy League comparator: there isn't quite one. Universities group themselves in various ways for their pronouncements on Government policy, particularly about funding, as Panda says, and there are various subtle and not-so-subtle attempts to put each other down (some wag used to refer to the former Oxford Poly as the Shorter Oxford University). But - and here I speak from experience - when it comes to marketing to students and the general public, there's never quite enough common ground for a fixed shared identity.
I ought, of course, to have researched the thread thoroughly, but while I'm here, have we had:
and if it is like Aus, you don't get interviewed by the faculty before being offerred a place anymore.
Varies between unis (heh!) and courses.
I'm still laughing about the Shorter Oxford University I had a slightly confusing conversation recently with a neighbour about her nephew going to Brookes College at the University of Oxford
Haberdashery - I was always a bit confused by those department store signs to Haberdashery and Notions (not so abundant anymore) - which things were which? My feelings were that Haberdashery was the bigger stuff (like interlinings )and notions was the stuff I had to keep going out and buying because they ended up shooting up the vacuum cleaner hose, like needles, bobbins and thimbles.
The word haberdashery just starts off the theme tune to Are You Being Served in my head......
Posts: 1400 | Location: London, UK | Registered: 20 September 2006
Originally posted by PatrickLondon: John may of course be right about Australia - that's the point. "Varsity" was dead by the end of WW2, I think, other than as the name of the Cambridge student paper. But "uni" was unheard of until about 15-20 years ago in the UK. "Neighbours" is definitely the culprit (and probably for Upspeak as well).
m Maybe my memory is playing tricks. I graduated in June 1970 and arrived in Australia at Christmas 1970. I don't remember the use of 'uni' sounding strange, but maybe it got lost with the rest of the strine this pommie had to learn. I remember reading some fiction where someone said they thought 'uni' was a better abbreviation than 'varsity'. I thought I read it while I was still in England, but now I'm not sure if I can trust that memory.
Funny thing about Neighbours]. We didn't see it until my mother and sister visited us, and when they went back to England we didn't bother watching any more.
John "There are two types of problems: those that solve themselves, and those which you can do nothing about" Isabel Allende's grandmother
Posts: 1710 | Location: Mullumbimby, NSW, Australia | Registered: 26 March 2003
I don't know what universities were called in UK in the 1960s but I definitely went to Melbourne "uni" in the early 1960s, but I have no idea when it was first used.
Posts: 389 | Location: Melbourne, Australia | Registered: 16 January 2007
Originally posted by PatrickLondon: As for the Ivy League comparator: there isn't quite one. Universities group themselves in various ways for their pronouncements on Government policy, particularly about funding, as Panda says, and there are various subtle and not-so-subtle attempts to put each other down (some wag used to refer to the former Oxford Poly as the Shorter Oxford University). But - and here I speak from experience - when it comes to marketing to students and the general public, there's never quite enough common ground for a fixed shared identity.
I have just come across this politically incorrect quote on the internet
quote:
Oxbridge rejects from major public schools go to Durham or St Andrews. Posh students who won't admit that they really wanted to go to Oxford, really, go to Bristol or Exeter. Clever posh people who genuinely didn't want Cambridge go to Edinburgh or Sussex or Kings or LSE or sometimes Birmingham (believe it or not). Clever people who aren't posh and don't really care about being posh go to Imperial or Glasgow or Sheffield or Warwick or Leeds. Just possibly Manchester or even Nottingham. Ones who aren't as posh or as clever as they think they are go to York, or if they are having a really bad day, Reading.
John "There are two types of problems: those that solve themselves, and those which you can do nothing about" Isabel Allende's grandmother
Posts: 1710 | Location: Mullumbimby, NSW, Australia | Registered: 26 March 2003
I'm still laughing at that - my daughter (currently known in this house as The Applicant as in 'Dear Applicant.....)was in fits of laughter. Awful but containing many, many grains of truth. (Though a bit out of date for this year - these things have fashions too...)
Posts: 1400 | Location: London, UK | Registered: 20 September 2006
So I won't find socks at a UK haberdasher? Or hats?
I wouldn't expect to, no. To me, the word conveys a shop with things to do with sewing, needlecraft and possibly rather pointless and twee "gifts", probably in a rather chintz-heavy environment - which I understand US "notions" to be.
Most men would get their socks from M&S (or by the mysterious intervention of the family sock fairy). Nick's link is an eye-opener to me - that would be a a "gent's outfitter" in the UK, like this:
One which I don't think has come up here before are the different types of bed sizes. Something, which I am pains to explain in my business, in case of disappointment
US King UK Super-king
US Queen UK King(Just to confuse this issue, before Super-Kings came on the scene we also called these Queens and some people still do....)
In the UK we also have Double (not sure what you call that in the US - about 5 ft wide) Single, and one that my husband calls a 'Sporting Single' which is half way between the two in size. I think its correct name is a large single (about 4 ft). New to the scene and becoming more popular with those who like to be one up on the neighbours, is the Emperor bed which is unecessarily massive but probably good for those close to a divorce.
Ah. With us it is in the width, although Ikea has messed up all the sizes as those Europeans are generally a bit longer and not quite so wide
But (roughly) Single: 3', Large single 3'6", Small double 4'", Double 5', King 5'6", Super King 6'(and longer than a King as well) and Emperor....I dunno but BIG and you can only buy sheets for them at places like Harrods and Selfridges.
Yes, Panda. I somehow rubbed out the 6" I meant to put on the small double which so often gets advertised as a 'real' double. We have experienced those too and with a 6'6" husband who likes to lie diagonally on small beds there is just a curled up cat's space left for me. i.e. no sleep at all.
I remember having a hilarious conversation with a group of friends after we all married 6 foot plus husbands about this very 'diagonalisation' problem and the resultant hunched up sleeping female halves!
Posts: 1400 | Location: London, UK | Registered: 20 September 2006
We don't hear "busking" very much in the US and I remember seeing "No Busking" signs in UK - in the States, most people wouldn't know what such a sign meant (except the buskers, of course).
Closest we come is panhandling (which isn't the same, at all) or street performing, which is decriptive enough, but not a single word that captures the definition, as "busking" does.
Posts: 738 | Location: New Hampshire | Registered: 12 September 2006
I had a slightly confusing conversation recently with a neighbour about her nephew going to Brookes College at the University of Oxford 
i.e. no sleep at all.
