sophomore Now U.S.
(ˈsɒfəmɔə(r))
Also 7 sophy moore, 8– sophimore (8 soph mor).
[app. f. sophom sophism + -or. Cf. sophumer.]
1. A student of the second year: † a. At Cambridge. Obs.
| 1688 Holme Armoury iii. 199/1 The several degrees of persons in the University Colledges... Fresh Men, Sophy Moores, Junior Soph, or Sophester. And lastly Senior Soph. 1795 Gentl. Mag. Oct. 818 The Freshman's year being expired, the next distinctive appellation conferred is A Soph Mor. |
b. In American universities and colleges. Also
transf. (
quot. 1807).
| α 1726 in J. Quincy Hist. Harvard (1840) I. 441 The Sophomores recite Burgersdicius's Logic..in the mornings and forenoons. 1766 in B. Peirce Hist. Harvard (1833) 246 That the Sophomores shall attend..on Mondays. 1792 J. Belknap Hist. New Hampsh. III. 296 The sophomores [at Dartmouth] attend to the languages, geography, logic and mathematics. 1807 W. Irving Salmagundi (1811) II. 41 Three different orders of shavers in New York—those who shave pigs. N.B. Freshmen and Sophomores. 1826 Motley Corr. (1889) I. 6 Mr. Cogswell says he should think I might enter Sophomore [at Harvard]. 1865 Mrs. Whitney Gayworthys I. 243 He would have been nearly through a college year by this time; and he had been ready to enter as sophomore. 1892 Nation (N.Y.) 22 Sept. 217 Under this system the ‘academic’ students, i.e., the freshmen and sophomores, work off their required subjects two at a time. |
| β c 1764 Freshman Laws in Woolsey Hist. Disc. Yale Coll. (1850) 55 A Senior may take a Freshman from a Sophimore, a Bachelor from a Junior. 1778 Stiles Diary 15 July (1901) II. 285 [List of] Sophimores. 1804 Fessenden Democracy Unveiled (1806) II. 42 With all his sophimore's rotundity, With all his semblance of profundity. |
2. attrib., passing into adj., as
sophomore class,
sophomore society,
sophomore year, etc.
| 1778 Stiles Diary 25 June (1901) II. 276 Disciplined Cowles & examined & admitted him into the Sophimore Class. 1852 Bristed Five Yrs. Eng. Univ. (ed. 2) 381 Two prizes for problems during the Freshman and Sophomore years. 1883 Cent. Mag. XXV. 517/1 Helen was in the Sophomore year of the class..when Robert came home from his first cruise. 1897 Flandrau Harvard Episodes 95 This fact is..of greater significance than any one..is likely to attach to the sophomore society. |