![ap style freshman sophomore junior senior ap style freshman sophomore junior senior](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/QC64S263PeQ/hqdefault.jpg)
"So, 'first year' is a term that we’re watching and will certainly be entered to the dictionary at some point."Īnd it is that evolutionary aspect of our language that keeps Sokolowski so endlessly fascinated by the words we use. "We also, as you know, say 'first year' today as a new term for freshman which is obviously a gendered term," said Sokolowski. And so, while these terms are ubiquitous for us today, that may not be the case for our children’s children. Of course language is a living, changing thing. "In other words, the colony sometimes retains the terms for a longer period of time than the colonizer does."
![ap style freshman sophomore junior senior ap style freshman sophomore junior senior](https://www.jesuithighschool.org/sites/main/files/imagecache/medium/main-images/e81b4ab7-7ba0-481a-a90e-7a2d9d20a20e.jpeg)
"There are many words in the French of Quebec that are old fashioned to a person from Paris for example," he explained. That, too, says Sokolowski, is fairly common. Notably, while these terms have remained staples here in the U.S., they’ve long fallen out of favor in England. We frequently now spell website as a single word or email without a hyphen," he added. "Just think of something like 'e-mail' or 'website' for example. The move toward efficiency over time is a fundamental characteristic of language. That the two-word terms fresh men and sophy mMoore became single words, and that the "sophister" was dropped from junior and senior, should not be a surprise, said Sokolowski. "Clearly, later on, we dropped the word sophister and we kept the junior and senior," said Sokolowski. And just as Harvard took its cues from Oxford and Cambridge, most universities and high schools here in the U.S. "You become a junior soph – one who is becoming increasingly wise – and finally, a senior soph – one who has acquired more wisdom," explained Sokolowski.Īll of these terms were adopted by Harvard when it was established in 1636. And so, two levels of sophister - sometimes simply shortened to “soph” - were created. "Sophister is a word in English that goes back to the 14th century, and really what it means is wise man or expert," said Sokolowski.īut true wisdom and expertise, it seems, cannot be attained in a single year. And that same root word "moros," gives us the word moron.įollowing a year as wise fools, the sophy moores would graduate - so to speak - to the level of “sophister,” which draws on that same Greek root word, sophos. That "soph" also appears in the word philoSOPHy, which means a love of wisdom. And so sophy moore - or sophomore - means 'a wise fool.”" "It comes from the Greek word 'sophos,' meaning clever or wise," said Sokolowski. But things get linguistically interesting in year two, where another two-word term, “sophy more,” was coined by combining two ancient Greek words. "Part of British culture - in terms of nobility - is a lot about class and rank."īy the 1600s, new students at these English Universities were called the "fresh men," a two-word term that makes sense even to our modern ears. "This really is about rank," he explained. And sure enough, his research confirmed just that. Sokolowski suspected that like many of America’s collegiate traditions, these terms had their roots in England’s venerable universities Oxford and Cambridge. And it’s a good question," said Peter Sokolowski, editor-at-large for Merriam-Webster in Springfield. At first, it even stumped the experts at the dictionary. And then my mom suggested that I email you guys."ĭora needs not worry that she and her friends didn’t know this one. And I asked my friends and they didn’t know either. "I was wondering where the High School and College year names come from – so Freshman, Sophomore, Junior and Senior. But thankfully Dora Evans, a senior at Needham High School, did. It's what I call a “hiding in plain sight” question one about something so common that most of us don’t even think to ask it. And today we have one that is perhaps my favorite kind of question. We love nothing more here at the Curiosity Desk than answering a question that comes from you, our listeners and readers.