The fact that I am thus getting the character of a man of no talent, and a mere “dig,” does, I confess, weigh down my spirits.—­Amherst Indicator, Vol.  I. p. 224.

  By this ’t is that we get ahead of the Dig,
  ’T is not we that prevail, but the wine that we swig.
    Ibid., Vol.  II. p. 252.

DIGGING.  The act of studying hard; diligent application.

  I find my eyes in doleful case,
    By digging until midnight.—­Harv.  Reg., p. 312.

I’ve had an easy time in College, and enjoyed well the “otium cum dignitate,”—­the learned leisure of a scholar’s life,—­always despised digging, you know.—­Ibid., p. 194.

How often after his day of digging, when he comes to lay his weary head to rest, he finds the cruel sheets giving him no admittance.—­Ibid., p. 377.

        Hopes to hit the mark
  By digging nightly into matters dark.
    Class Poem, Harv.  Coll., 1835.

  He “makes up” for past “digging.”
    Iadma Poem, Harv.  Coll., 1850.

DIGNITY.  At Bowdoin College, “Dignity,” says a correspondent, “is the name applied to the regular holidays, varying from one half-day per week, during the Freshman year, up to four in the Senior.”

DIKED. At the University of Virginia, one who is dressed with more than ordinary elegance is said to be diked out.  Probably corrupted from the word decked, or the nearly obsolete dighted.

DIPLOMA.  Greek, [Greek:  diploma], from [Greek:  diploo], to double or fold.  Anciently, a letter or other composition written on paper or parchment, and folded; afterward, any letter, literary monument, or public document.  A letter or writing conferring some power, authority, privilege, or honor.  Diplomas are given to graduates of colleges on their receiving the usual degrees; to clergymen who are licensed to exercise the ministerial functions; to physicians who are licensed to practise their profession; and to agents who are authorized to transact business for their principals.  A diploma, then, is a writing or instrument, usually under seal, and signed by the proper person or officer, conferring merely honor, as in the case of graduates, or authority, as in the case of physicians, agents, &c.—­Webster.

DISCIPLINE.  The punishments which are at present generally adopted in American colleges are warning, admonition, the letter home, suspension, rustication, and expulsion.  Formerly they were more numerous, and their execution was attended with great solemnity.  “The discipline of the College,” says President Quincy, in his History of Harvard University, “was enforced and sanctioned by daily visits of the tutors to the chambers of the students, fines, admonitions, confession in the hall, publicly asking pardon, degradation to the bottom of the class, striking the name from the College list, and expulsion, according to the nature and aggravation of the offence.”—­Vol.  I. p. 442.