Learning to "speak Dartmouth" is a challenge. Drawing on both Latin and Germanic influences, our lingo endures despite a complete turnover in its native speakers every four to five years. There are no textbooks, and students who are the most versed are unlikely to be awake at 7:45 a.m. to lead drill.
Like French or Spanish, Dartmouth is a language that you cannot master until you arrive in the place it is spoken Hanover. However, to tide you over and make your comments on the wall of the 2015 Facebook group sound much more legit, I have assembled a comprehensive guide to Dartspeak.
@now (adv.): A common redundancy used to grab attention and highlight that something is currently happening.
Blitz out (verb): A blitz that goes to a large group of students. (noun): The act of sending a blitz out to a large group of students.
Boat Race (noun): A competition in which opposing teams chug drinks down a line and back. The side to complete this the fastest wins.
Boot (verb): To vomit with an oddly positive connotation, often followed by rallying.Bro (noun): A Dartmouth male who can mostly be found in a subterranean habitat. This species enjoys drinking, wearing fraternity letters, playing pong and referring to himself and others as "bro."
-cest (suffix): This can be tacked on the end of any word describing a relationship after an incestuous hook-up occurs. Following trips and Orientation, popular examples include tripcest and floorcest.
Circuit (noun): The act of drinking a beer at each of Dartmouth's 15 fraternities. This occasion is usually commemorated by taking a group photo at every Greek house in order to prove to your foggy memory and your friends that you really did complete the task.
Crunchy (adj.): Used to describe outdoorsy students who are often equipped with Birkenstocks, Nalgenes or frisbees and rarely equipped with razors or deodorant.Dartmouth Seven (noun): Seven public places around campus to do private things, unless you're an exhibitionist. A few of the locations include the Green, the stacks, College President Jim Yong Kim's lawn and the Top of the Hop.
D-Plan (noun): A reference to Dartmouth's unique quarter system, often the source of awkward long-distance relationships, crazy study-abroard programs or scoring a highly-competitive internship. Often used to describe one's own pattern of off-terms.
Drill (noun): Dartmouth's unique and sometimes painful system for teaching foreign language that involves waking up at 7:45 to have another student snap at you and ask you to speak in a language that you don't fully understand. EBAs (noun): Dartmouth's late night pizza delivery restaurant that takes orders until 2:10 a.m., which is good because it usually doesn't taste good until the early morning anyways.
Facetime (noun): The hobby of occupying a public space and being seen. Facetime is easily acquired by speaking loudly or socializing in any dining location, in open study spaces and in classes over 100 people.
FSP (noun): Acronym for Foreign Study Program. This is a 10-week study abroad program led by a Dartmouth professor. Many Dartmouth students affectionately refer to their FSPs as their favorite term. I still have faith in sophomore Summer.
FoCo (noun): Nickname and ONLY name for Food Court, which should never be reffered to by it's official name, "Class of 1953 Commons."
FFB (noun): The colloquial term for the first floor of Berry Library, an epicenter of facetime.
Flair (noun): Clothing that is brightly colored or generally ridiculous looking. Wearing flair is completely appropriate at any time.
Flitz (noun/verb): A flirtacious blitz that should always end with a question so the conversation (or relationship) doesn't die. This may be used interchangeably as noun and verb.
Good Sam (noun): A College policy that allows you to get help from S&S for a friend who is highly intoxicated without either of you facing disciplinary action. Use it.
H-Po (noun): A term for the Hanover Police Department, which should not be confused with S&S (see below). H-Po is rarely nice or forgiving.
Hinman Box (noun): The location of all student mailboxes. Mysteriously enough, the mail center goes by the alias "Wits" on blitz.
Ledyard Challenge (noun): Swimming across the Connecticut River to Vermont and running back to New Hampshire sans clothing.
LSA (noun): Acronym for Language Study Abroad. This is a language-specific 10-week program that focuses on one of Dartmouth's foreign languages.
Meetings (noun): What most upperclassmen are doing during that awkward hour on Wednesdays when you have nowhere to go because, as a first-year student, you will not be a member of a fraternity or sorority yet.
Midterm (noun): The apocolyptic term used to describe any test or paper assigned from Week 2 to Week 8 of a term.
NRO (noun/verb): Acronym for Non-Recording Option. To NRO a course means to set a limit of the lowest grade you are willing to receive. This is similar to taking a class pass/fail, with the possibility of actually receiving a grade.
Parkhurst (noun): The administrative building on Main Street in which, of many things, President Kim's office is located. (verb): Getting Parkhursted or hursted is synonymous with being suspended or expelled.
Rally (verb): A revered accomplishment among college students in which someone at a party perseveres at something, even though it may be physically trying. Can be related to athletics but is more often related to drinking, especially when preceded by "booting."
Shmob (collective noun): Refers to freshman roaming in packs of 10 or more. Shmobs are very common during Orientation.
S&S (noun): Safety and Security, the College's policing force that is not to be confused with H-Po (see above). They will be nice to you, even if they catch you as you are half-way through the Ledyard Challenge.
Self Call (noun/verb): This must be declared after a friend makes any statement bragging about accomplishments.
The Hop (noun): An acronym for the Hopkins Center, which houses all of Dartmouth's arts departments and a grill preferred by sweet bros and beefy dudes. Usually, entire sports teams dine here after their practices. Try to get in line before them or you will probably starve to death.
Trippee (noun): A loving term that refers to a member of your First-Year DOC trip.
UGA (noun): Acronym for undergraduate advisor. A UGA is an upperclassman on your freshman floor, who helps you out with any problems you might have during the trials and tribulations of College life.
Remember, there is always that guy who is so pumped to "Roll with some shmen in a shmob to FoCo then hit FFB to get some facetime and flitz his trippee who's looking for some tripcest." Don't be that guy. No one likes that guy.
