Light & Verity

Yexicon

A guide to the latest student abbrevs.

Jim Bradshaw

Jim Bradshaw

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Our ears pricked up recently when we heard an undergrad refer to his residential college as his “res co.” So we asked around: what other abbrevs are students using? Some have been around for years, some were new to us, but there are plenty. Here’s a sample.

Bafé: a portmanteau of Bass and café. Refers to the Bass Library eatery—officially, the Thain Family Café.

Ben Frank: Benjamin Franklin College

FroCo: freshman counselor. The term persists despite the fact that new undergrads are now called “first-years.”

G-Heav: short for Gourmet Heaven, a pair of campus convenience stores. (Never mind that the stores changed ownership and reopened in 2015 under the name Good Nature Market.) The location on Whitney Avenue is also called TD-Heav because of its proximity to Timothy Dwight College.

L-Dub: Lanman-Wright Hall.

NARP: non-athlete regular person. Used among varsity athletes and their friends.

P-set: problem set.

ResCo: residential college. Saves four syllables when you’re in a hurry.

Vandy: Vanderbilt Hall.

XC: Cross Campus. Usually seen only in writing, for brevity’s sake.

Woads: a portmanteau of “Wednesday” and “Toad’s,” referring to the weekly Yale-only dance party at Toad’s Place.

Yitter: the community of Yale students on Twitter. Many other words are made specific to Yale by replacing the first letter with a Y. See also: yague (Yale plague, a cold everyone gets early in the fall semester), yuttle (the Yale Shuttle).

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