Don't talk like a frosh: the guide to Yalespeak

This is a dictionary of Yale lingo. Cut it out and stick it in your pocket, but take it out before you wash your pants.

Annex: Freshman year you live on Old Campus. Sophomore year you move to your college. Junior year you're back on Old Campus. You've been annexed.

Bagging: You're in bed. It's 9:45 a.m. You had a class at 9:30. Maybe you'll make it next week.

PATRICK MCGARVEY/YH Your roommate got game and you don't? Welcome to sexile.

Beer Goggles: People start to look much more interesting when you've had something to drink. If you hook up with someone sketchy as a result of this phenomenon, you've been seeing through beer goggles.

Big Sib/Lil' Sib: Worried about making friends at Yale? You'll have one assigned to you.

Blue Book: This Bible of class listings and descriptions is your shopping guide to academics.

Bound-and-Hagged: Staying home on a Friday or Saturday night.

The Yale Bowl: One of the oldest stadiums in the universe and desperate for a facelift. It can hold 75,000 spectators, but even with free tickets for students, the Bowl never brims to capacity.

Bursar: The Bursar and your parents should become good friends. If not, you might get put on "Bursar's hold." This means that you think you're a Yale student, you feel like a Yale student—but somehow, you're not.

Bursar Billable: Free!—until your parents get the bill and start to complain.

CCL: Cross Campus Library, underground home of weenie bins and lots of '70s furniture. Almost as popular a place for socializing as for studying. Also, late hours mean lots of snoozing studiers.

Couch Duty: There are two people in your bedroom and you are not one of them. Guess where you get to sleep? Also known as "sexile."

CR/D/F: Taking a class Credit/D/Fail means doing just enough work to get a C-, or doing too much work, getting an A, and feeling like a dork. Used to be CR/F. Back then, all you needed was a D-. Those were the days.

Dean's Excuse: No need to choose between a wild night on the town and that seminar paper. Just practice your fake cough, stop by your Dean's office, and postpone it.

The Doodle: The Yankee Doodle, a time-tested hole-in-the-wall sandwich shop. This hamburger shack honors Doodlers who stuff themselves with butter-topped burgers in the Doodle Challenge—the current record is 28 in one go.

D.S.: Directed Studies. Also known as "Directed Suicide" or, for the DSers themselves, "Damn Sexy." This is Yale's last bastion of the beloved Western canon—brought to us by DWMs (dead white males).

DUH: Acronym still used to refer to the old Department of University Health, even though they changed the name to University Health Services about 18 years ago. Have a headache? According to these professionals, you either have mono or you're pregnant.

GESO: Heavy-handed group of grad student TAs that wants to become a full-fledged labor union. An endless source of controversy and a thorn in the side of the Administration.

Gut: An easy class that takes the pressure off a busy schedule and fulfills distributional requirements, such as "EE 101," "Physics for Poets," or "Clapping for Credit."

Krauszer's: This 24-hour food mart has long satisfied Yalies' late-night cravings. Yale's central planners have been toying with its lease. Is this goodbye?

Legacy: A Yalie who is here because his or her parent or other miscellaneous relative went here. They help the curve and heavily populate colleges like Branford and Davenport.

LGBT (Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgendered) Co-op: Sponsor of dances wild enough to attract students of all orientations.

Machine City: The purgatory between CCHell and Sterling, it's home to study groups, TA office hours, lone coffee-swillers, and vending machines galore.

COURTESY SPORTS PUBLICITY OFFICE The Bowl, where Yale and Harvard battle it out.

Mory's: An exclusive Old Blue establishment where Yalies drink from cups filled with funny colored alcohol. It even has its own song.

Naked Party: Nude ugly smelly people, drunk. Really. Tip for the fellas: don't get too excited.

Naples: This pizza joint features greasy pies and bad beer, salmon-pink walls and a working jukebox. At one time a popular dance dive for Yalies, the Thursday night social scene is still alive at Naples. Freshmen pack the house, though townies and students from other colleges often elbow their way in as well. Remember to bring your dad's hunting knife to carve your name in the wood tables.

Payne Whitney: Two pools plus four basketball courts plus one weight room equals Yale's own "House of Payne."

Problem Set: The annoying weekly assignment you're inevitably faced with in any Group IV or econ class. This thankless task will keep you up until 3 a.m. on Sunday night, but will only count for about 1/50 of your grade.

Reading Period: A whole week with no classes? You'll laugh, you'll drink, you'll cry when finals come on Monday.

Ridonkulous: Ridiculous. Legend has it, a few decades back a DKE member named Donk didn't complete his senior essay. Afterward, he stayed on at Yale as a Science Hill (see below) janitor in exchange for library privileges. Variant: "You really donked that one."

Science Hill: A half-mile from Old Campus, this is God's way of punishing Group IV majors who would otherwise get no exercise.

Section: Is your lecture class simply too large? That's why there are weekly bonding sessions where you sit through long uncomfortable silences, avoid eye contact with the TA (see below), and listen to that one guy who's done all the reading.

Shopping Period: Couldn't decide between Ornithology and Introductory Kiswahili? Go on a shopping spree and make sure the TAs speak English.

SML: Sterling Memorial Library boasts the Stacks and a number of reading rooms with grandiose vaulted ceilings. Such intimidating rooms are certainly not for the faint of heart. Work will be done.

Spring Fling: Campus-wide party/BBQ the weekend before Reading Period. Held on Old Campus, this year's Fling featured Ben Harper.

The Stacks: Fourteen floors of books in Sterling, home to millions of titles and the occasional sexual tryst. Inspiration for the much-hyped student porn flick The Staxxx.

Study Break: Don't feel like studying? Neither do the people downstairs.

Swing Space: Officially Boyd Hall (short for "Boy'd we get screwed," according to displaced students), this swingin' new dorm temporarily houses students while their college undergoes renovations. This year's lucky residents: TD.

TA: Teaching Assistant. They grade you in large lecture courses based on how enthusiastically you participate in (or attend) 9:30 a.m. Friday sections.

Tang: An intramural beer-drinking competition. Current chug-a-lug champs: Saybrook men and Silliwomen.

Toad's: This New Haven hot spot attracts all kinds of great musical performers—you know, like the Radiators and Darik and the Funbags. The Saturday night dance party is a weekly fixture for those looking to get their freak on.  

Tyng: The college intramurals prize. Saybrook won last year.

Weenie Bin: Similar to isolation tanks, the weenie bins are study carrels in CCL. They also serve as nap rooms and the sites of strange sexual escapades. 

The Whale: Feels like a hockey rink, looks like a whale.

What the Schlong?: An expression of utter confusion. You'll hear it a lot in the first week of freshman year. Say it to an upperclassman if in need of assistance.

YCC: The Yale College Council, a student-government equivalent that prompts a deluge of pestering and postering just before elections. Campaign issues range from two-ply toilet paper to building a pyramid on Cross Campus. This year's president: Vidhya Prabhakaran, MC '03.

YDN: The Yale Daily News. Yale's daily newspaper. Don't work for them; it'll stunt your growth. Forsake their stuffy building for our cozy office. Besides, selling your soul at the ripe age of 18 is illegal in Connecticut.

The Yale Herald: Campus's favorite paper, with lots of photos, news, a calendar of events, comics, sports, and more. The office flows with pizza. We're also very cute. Join us!

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