The Wykehamist On Notions
The dialect of Winchester College and what to do with it
Anthony Kim is cooked
The Notions are used by every one of us Wykehamists at various points of our daily lives, and with some words going obsolete and new ones rising, our very own English dialect has undeniably lived and evolved with us.
On arrival at the College, we all learn very quickly to say“ hour” instead of“ lesson” and“ don” instead of“ teacher”, partake in assemblies known as“ preces” and dread Div tasks on Saturday evenings. Unfortunately, the truth is that the Notions are now fading away, and in order to find the ones responsible for such a phenomenon, we need only to look into a mirror; it is the fault of all those who commit verbal atrocities demanding“ homework” from their dons as opposed to“ toytime”, spending ekker sleeping in their“ toy” rather than“ toys”, or uttering the most horrible pleonasm of“ Div set”.
My friend and I encountered a certain book in Mob Lib about three years ago, when we were still in first year. It was a dictionary of Notions written by an old Collegeman called Charles Stevens. We were so intrigued by this that for the next week or so we spent our breaktimes in the library reading it. Having done so, we concluded that in fact, most Notions are simply too niche and bizarre to be in common use.
I must make clear therefore that I am not writing to propose that we revive all those obscure Notions that existed centuries ago that are hard even to pronounce( examples include“ babylonightish”, meaning a dressing-gown, and“ amahagger”, the act of launching two china vessels against each other to smash them mid-air); I merely aim to explain the evolution of the language and suggest how we ought to react to such changes.
Compare the decline of Notions to the rise of internet jargon. The language of Wykehamists today is much more vulnerable to external influences, such as social media: you can now be“ cracked” or“ cold” at something but no longer“ anal”, and you might be somewhat“ cooked” if you have you have chosen to“ goive” your Mathmā toytime and instead got too invested in“ vegging”. As adolescents grow sensitive to the fast-changing world and adapt to it, it is not all too incomprehensible that Notions get replaced by these trendy expressions.
While some Notions die a natural death, others are deliberately erased from the glossary as a matter of policy. For example,“ fagging”, a tradition involving a member of the Junior Part working as a valet for a Praefect was prominent in College from the 1800s to the 1900s, but this type of bullying is now deemed strictly immoral. Interestingly, this particular Notion clearly reflects what a life at a public school was like back in the day. Words often convey in their meanings the culture and the context in which they were most commonly used; the Winchester Notions are no exception.
Take corporal punishment as another example of this. The beating of pupils was traditionally called“ bibling”, or less commonly“ flogging”, but when caning was officially banned in schools in 1986, the words were deprived of their purpose. The history of private education in the UK is relatively well-recorded, but as for the more eccentric aspects of it, it is often best to rely on jargon and tradition.
Finally, let us consider a Notion that has existed with us for centuries:“ Headman”. This particular word, traditionally referring to the Headmaster of the College, is no longer in use since 2023, since the arrival of our first female headmaster. Here we see a circumstantial factor that has affected the language.
It is inevitable that languages change. Dialects are even more prone to variation. We have seen that there are just so many factors that cause such changes, and we must not give it any more opportunities to be contaminated through inaccurate use. We all need to be proud of our quirky heritage manifested in the words we use and aim to preserve them.
Anthony Kim( E, 2021-)
9