Oxonian, a. and n.
(ɒkˈsəʊnɪən)
[f. Oxonia, latinized form of Oxenford, Oxford + -an.]
A. adj. Of or belonging to Oxford.
| 1644 Sir E. Dering Prop. Sacr. e, The Oxonian complements grow up close to this. 1716 Pol. Ballads (1860) II. 175 Th' Oxonian doctors farther went. 1810 Edin. Rev. XVI. 172 We call them [according as, classified, classification] Oxonian barbarisms; because we know no other title descriptive of them. 1851 Mayhew Lond. Labour (1861) II. 43/1 I've been selling Oxonian button-overs (‘Oxonian’ shoes, which cover the instep, and are closed by being buttoned instead of being stringed through four or five holes). |
B. n. a. A native or inhabitant of Oxford; more usually, a member of the University of Oxford. Also, used of residents of Oxford who are not members of the University.
| c 1540 Pilgr. T. 676 in Thynne's Animadv. (1865) App. i, Then he asked me and I were cantibrygion. I sayd no, I was an oxonian. 1701 Farquhar Sir H. Wildair ii. i, I'm priveleged to be very impertinent, being an Oxonian. 1878 N. Amer. Rev. CXXVII. 512 Oxonians and Cantabs twitted the Scotch with knowing no Greek and little Latin. 1966 Oxford Mail 16 Mar. 8/3 We real Oxonians do still exist. |
b. A kind of shoe: see quot. 1851 in A.
| 1848 Thackeray Van. Fair lviii, Then the sleepless Boots went..gathering up..the Bluchers, Wellingtons, Oxonians, which stood outside. 1851 Mayhew Lond. Labour (1861) II. 42/2, I had a pair of very good Oxonians that had been new welted. |
So Oˈxonianize v., to make Oxonian in character, imbue with the ideas of Oxford; Oxoˈnolatry [see -latry], worship of or devotion to Oxford.
| 1885 Athenæum 26 Sept. 400/1 He was..as little Oxonianized at the core..as a true son of Oxford could well be. 1893 Swinburne Stud. Prose & Poetry (1894) 34 The effusive Oxonolatry of Mr. Arnold. 1932 A. Quiller-Couch in Fifty Years 46 What we, the lighter-hearted, did not renounce was the charm of the place, that ‘Oxonolatry’, if you will, which Swinburne had scoffed at. |