collegienne

See also: collégienne

English

Etymology

From collegian, after such pairs as English comedian: comedienne. Compare French collégienne.

Noun

collegienne (plural collegiennes)

1. (dated) A female college student.
   • 1912, Rupert Hughes, “The Last Fledgling”, in The Old Nest, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., section IV, page 54:

     Young Mr. MacLeod had met Emily at a football game, when he was a collegian and she a collegienne.

   • 1917, Rupert Hughes, “Pop”, in In a Little Town, New York, N.Y., London: Harper & Brothers […], section I, page 44:

     Years later one of the inarticulate brats had come home as a collegian in a funny hat, and Mama had become Mater. This had lasted until one of the brattines came home as a collegienne with a swagger and a funny sweater.

   • 1920 October 26, The Bucknellian, volume XXIV, number 3, Lewisburg, Pa.: Bucknell University, page three:

     The College Smoke Shop […] For Collegions^[sic] and Collegiennes alike

   • 1924 August 27, “Fashions En Route to School and College”, in The Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, Calif., part II, page 3:

     A hat that should appeal particularly to girls going away to school. […] A collegienne type at $7.50. —Collegienne Millinery Shop—Bullock’s Fifth Floor.

   • 1926 December 30, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, volume 79, number 114, St. Louis, Mo., page 17:

     Choice of All Raccoon Coats / Unrestricted choice of collegiate models in raccoon, formerly priced to $395. An event of especial appeal to the collegienne

   • 1927 October 5, “Co-Eds Learn Rooting Secret: Told How Designs Are Formed at Games”, in The Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, Calif., part II, page 23, column 6:

     Sacred to the male collegians, the manipulation of cards to form properly the intricate letters flashed out to visiting teams during Coliseum clashes has caused some consternation among the fair students at the local university. Paul Elmquist, yell king, has decided, therefore, to let the collegiennes in on the secret and is conducting private classes for all the curious.

   • 1930, The Pegasus‎^[1], Chestertown, Md.: Washington College:

     The Store Where Smart Collegians and Collegiennes may shop with perfect confidence. Hochschild, Kohn & Co.

   • 1931 March 6, “Grading Profs”, in The Daily Tar Heel, volume XXXIX, number 123, Chapel Hill, N.C., page two, column 5:

     Getting back again to the “grading” idea for faculty members, Rollins students would have the opportunity to scrutinize the work of professors from six angles: […]. With the shadow of finals already casting its pall on so many collegians and collegiennes on this campus, such an idea would be greeted with huzzas vociferous enough to set the native hills echoing for years to come.

   • 1935, The Pioneer, Sacramento, Calif.: […] [F]or the Students of the Sacramento Junior College by the Associated Student Council and the Pioneer Staff, page 102:

     Weinstock-Lubin & Co. / K St. at 12th / where collegians and collegiennes find up-to-date campus clothes

   • 1938, “Youth Is Served in ‘Brother Rat’”, in “w:Brother Rat”, Warner Bros., page 11, column 2:

     There are no 30-year old^[sic] “collegians” and “collegiennes” in “Brother Rat” much to the relief of the make-up department.

   • 1939 May 18, “How Would Your Collegians Rate?”, in The Massachusetts Collegian, volume XLIX, number 29, Amherst, Mass.: Massachusetts State College, page 2:

     On the shores of Lake Michigan in Chicago, the collegians of Loyola University and the collegiennes of neighboring Mundelein College have been throwing verbal brick-bats at each other in surveys conducted on their campuses of what the Mundelein women thought of the Loyola men, and vice versa.

   • 1940, Vogue‎^[2], volume 96, page 19:

     And collegiennes, if you want a top-notch polo coat that will be your Faithful Friend for the four years, see Mr. Fram about it.

   • 1940 February 9, Lu Antonicelli, “RAMettes”, in The Guardsman, volume X, number 2, San Francisco, Calif.: […] [T]he Associated Students of San Francisco Junior College, page 3:

     Only Monday we found a Freshman woman enrolled in four different sports—no less! Such energy of which these enterprising youngsters are possessed! We have yet, however, to find a collegienne enrolled in each of the major sports clubs listed—but perhaps that’s too much to expect—there are only about 12!

   • 1944 May 31, Sten, “Bathing Beauty (Color; Musical)”, in Variety, volume 154, number 12, New York, N.Y., page 20, column 1:

     The former swimming champ displays her aquatic and acting abilities in the role of a collegienne who travels the rocky road Of love with songwriter Red Skelton.

   • 1947 December 3, Daily Bruin, volume XXXII, number 51, Los Angeles, Calif.: University of California at Los Angeles, page 1:

     Representatives from UCLA are Sunny Merrill and Ken Gallagher who will appear tonight on Peter Potter’s “College Corner” program, which will poll the most popular record according to West Coast collegiennes on KHJ from 10:30 to 11.

   • 1949 October 15, Thomas Taylor & Sons, “SHUGOR Goes West with Dude Ranch Casuals”, in Leather and Shoes, volume 118, number 17, Chicago, Ill.: The Rumpf Publishing Co., back cover:

     SHUGOR, and TAYLASTIX Laces, add kitchen-rocker comfort to trail-hitting casuals, that are sure to capture the fancy of dude-ettes and collegiennes who “go west” for shoe-style inspiration.

   • 1950, “College Integrating Conference”, in The Nineteen Fifty Allegra, Emmitsburg, Md.: […] [T]he Seniors of Saint Joseph College, page 23:

     Headed by the president of the Children of Mary, the CIC forms the backbone of all campus activities. Through this integrating organ, I, as a collegienne, am better able to attain full enjoyment of college life for my every thought, word, and deed are placed under the guidance of Mary.

   • 1950 April 6, Cerf Andsand, “The Spectre”, in The Spectator, volume 3, number 25, Carmel, Calif., page 18:

     The Easter vacation brings its yearly easement on these tired old eyes, balm for the jaded, envy from the old and assorted hankerings for days of yore. I refer to those collegians and collegiennes (ah, yes, the collegiennes!) who bring a splash of color and a spot of youth to this peaceful village every year along about now.

   • 1957, Mortimer R. Proctor, “The “Damned Tribe of Scribbling Women””, in The English University Novel, Berkeley, Calif., Los Angeles, Calif.: University of California Press, page 136:

     Women, though they have been admitted to, have clearly never been fully assimilated by, the still predominantly male societies of Oxford and Cambridge. They have enjoyed at best a doubtful welcome there. The “undergraduette,” though she has her own colleges, is nevertheless suspect as a collegienne and is rather cruelly assumed to belong to a group that is plainly unattractive and fearsome in its devotion to learning.

   • 1961, “Delta Sigma Theta”, in Makio, volume 80, Columbus, Oh.: Ohio State University, page 321:

     In campus activities, Delta Sigma Theta was proud to have among its members a homecoming queen candidate representing Mack Hall, a collegienne, and a WSGA Honor Dorm resident.

   • 1966, Stores‎^[3], volume 48, National Retail Merchants Association, page 26:

     Equally self-defeating was a sizing approach accepted fairly widely that failed to differentiate between the tastes and needs of very small boys and nearly adult ones, offering the same merchandise in a catchall size range of 6 through 20. Girls, on the other hand, were being divided into Pre-Teens, Sub-Debs, Hi-Teens and Collegiennes with their needs elaborately provided for at every level.

   • 1974, John Springer, Jack Hamilton, They Had Faces Then: Super Stars, Stars and Starlets of the 1930’s, Castle, →ISBN, page 50:

     She played chorines and collegiennes in pictures like Broadway Daddies and Forward Pass and was also in the early Warners musicals Song of the West and Golden Dawn, both with Vivienne Segal.

   • 1980, J[ulius] N[icholas] Hook, “Introduction”, in The Grand Panjandrum & 1,999 Other Rare, Useful, and Delightful Words and Expressions‎^[4], New York, N.Y.: Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., →ISBN, page vii:

     Back in the days when some college girls still blushed, a collegienne was sitting beside the desk in my office, conferring about a report for my course in history of the English language.

   • 1988, Anne L. Macdonald, “The Thirties Knitting Craze”, in No Idle Hands: The Social History of American Knitting, New York, N.Y.: Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 278:

     Delineator had its stereotype, too, a collegienne whose looks (“so soft and fragrant you wouldn’t believe she knew how to boil an egg”) belied her efficiency and hardheadedness and whose “femininity” allowed her to swoon at the sight of a handsome young man and be a whiz at sewing and knitting (“She made the outfit she is wearing and made it like an expert . . . and is pleased with the ‘figger’ the football shoulder and unbelted waistline give her”).