Harvardisms, Prefrosh Weekend Edition

So…think you’ve got what it takes to be a real Harvard student? Well, since you’re already here, sort of walking the walk, it’s about time you learned the talk. Leave your SAT vocabulary words behind—you’ll find all the terms you need know in The Crimson’s dictionary of Harvardisms (supplemented with special prefrosh definitions!) after the jump.

2 a.m.: 1. The hour that on-campus parties, Felipe’s, and Charlie’s all shut down. 2. The hour you’re likely to have your first drunk run-in with HUPD. 3. When the Kong, house grilles, and final clubs are still serving. 4. Prefrosh. The hour during which you are either fast asleep or locked out of your host’s room because she’s drunk, getting food at the Kong.

The ‘Berg: 1. Annenberg Hall, the cathedral-esque structure (complete with stained glass) that serves as the dining hall for all first-years. 2. Where food goes to die. 3. Prefrosh. Where you sit and stare in awe at the chandeliers, gushing to other prefrosh about how you feel like Hogwarts students.

More after the jump...

Boston: 1. Where you tell people you go to school. 2. The city you claimed made you choose Harvard over Yale. 3. Thirteen minutes from Harvard on the red line. 4. A place you will rarely have occasion to visit in four years. 5. Prefrosh. A place you think you will visit frequently in the next four years

Final Clubs: 1. Eight endowed all-male clubs, housed in their own multi-million dollar mansions. 2. The center of some students’ social lives (mostly female first-years’), they are viewed disapprovingly by College administrators and women’s groups alike. 3. Bastions of socioeconomic elitism. 4. Generally overrated. 5. Prefrosh. Where you won’t get in, if you’re a male, and where you should avoid, if you’re a female.

Grill Order: 1. What to ask for at Annenberg when country-fried steak simply won’t do. 2. Prefrosh. Good for Sunday lunch, the first point in time at which Annenberg ready-made entrees get old.

Hookup: 1. A blanket term for a variety of sex acts, often devoid of emotional attachment, usually following a boozed up grind in a sweatpit of a party. Have fun with these! 4. Prefrosh. Probably what you’re looking for this weekend. Just remember, though—that not-so-cute guy you’re making out with now might be in your Expos class next fall. At any rate, you’ll probably see him every day in Annenberg.

Spring: 1. Traditionally March, April, and May. 2. Doesn’t exist at Harvard, where temperatures jump directly from “Inside the Arctic Circle” to “Inside of Your Mouth.” 3. Prefrosh. For some reason, always does exists during this weekend, when thousands of prospective students descend upon Harvard and mistakenly believe it is this beautiful all the time.

UHS: 1. University Health Services. 2. Not a good place to go when you’re healthy, some say. 3. Not a good place to go when you’re sick, others say. 4. Will most definitely ask you if you’re pregnant. Or drunk. Or both. Especially if you’re a guy. 5. Prefrosh. Where you end up if you’ve had too much to drink.

Yale: 1. School spirit? Check! Deep-seated inferiority complex? Of course not! Who told you that? BOOLAH-BOOLAH DANNY BOY! 2. Prefrosh. The place your annoying prefrosh roommate can’t stop talking about because she knows she’s going there for sure because the campus is so much prettier than Harvard’s and the people are way smarter and cooler and hotter and she’s too good for Harvard anyway but her parents made her visit…etc. Synonyms. Stanford, Princeton, Brown. Antonyms. MIT.

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons/Jacob Rus.