Guest guest Posted August 19, 2005 Report Share Posted August 19, 2005 Excuse my interrupting, but swot is slang and generally used in English schools to make fun of those who study hard. I wouldn't use the word in serious writing. > Meaning > > to study by cramming > > or > > one who thus studies. > > Any entry in OED for this? Maybe it's an anglicism from my school days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 20, 2005 Report Share Posted August 20, 2005 At 07:15 PM 8/18/2005 +0200, Bhakti Vikasa Swami wrote: >Meaning > >to study by cramming > >or > >one who thus studies. > >Any entry in OED for this? Maybe it's an anglicism from my school days. yup, slang: verb intr. To work hard at one's studies; to ‘bone up’. Also trans., to ‘get up’, ‘mug up’ (a subject); more rarely, without up. 1860 Slang Dict. (ed. 2), Swot,+to work hard for an examination, to be diligent in one's studies.—Army. 1866 [see prec. 2]. 1899 E. Phillpotts Human Boy 120 He was swatting like anything in play-hours for a special Old Testament history prize. 1901 Chambers's Jrnl. July 445/2 Dick was ‘swotting’ blue china for all he was worth, at the British Museum and elsewhere. 1908 Athenæum 25 July 93/2 It is the case that boys deliberately set themselves to ‘slack’ or ‘swot’ for longer or shorter periods. 1913 Wireless World I. 37/2 There will be a chance for fellows like me, who have been swatting up Fleming's books. 1931 R. Campbell Georgiad i. 18 All who+of despair have baulked the yawning precipice By swotting up his melancholy recipes For ‘happiness’. 1955 Times 26 May 13/2 Mr. Forester must have ‘swotted up’ the subject of wartime Atlantic convoys just as he ‘swotted up’ the subject of the Navy in Nelson's time. 1967 K. Giles Death in Diamonds vi. 114 Been swatting the maps, I see. 1977 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 23 June 8/2 Our culture hound+swots up in the Encyclopedia before distinguished guests arrive. \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ ‘’‘’‘’ —‘’æ‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’ \\\\\\\\\\\\ noun 1. Work or study at school or college; in early use spec. mathematics. Hence gen. labour, toil. 1850 N. & Q. 1st Ser. I. 352/2, I have often heard military men talk of swot, meaning thereby mathematics; and persons eminent in that science are termed ‘good swots’. 1899 Crockett Kit Kennedy 307 Mary is a good girl, but I own it is no end of a swot to have to see her home from night~school. 1905 H. A. Vachell The Hill iii. 51 Our object is+to get through the ‘swat’ with as little squandering of valuable time as possible. ‘’‘’‘’ 2. One who studies hard. 1850 [see sense 1]. 1866 Routledge's Every Boy's Ann. 220 ‘Oh, you swat!’ met us at every turn+ and yet the real truth was, that neither Jack nor myself did ‘swat’. 1899 ‘Martello Tower’ [Capt. Norman] At School & Sea 40 Sometimes a knot of us+would persuade a good-natured swot to construe the forthcoming lesson to us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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