PIMP.  To do little, mean actions for the purpose of gaining favor with a superior, as, in college, with an instructor.  The verb with this meaning is derived from the adjective pimping, which signifies little, petty.

  Did I not promise those who fished
  And pimped most, any part they wished.
    The Rebelliad, p. 33.

PISCATORIAN.  From the Latin piscator, a fisherman.  One who seeks or gains favor with a teacher by being officious toward him.

This word was much used at Harvard College in the year 1822, and for a few years after; it is now very seldom heard.

See under FISH.

PIT.  In the University of Cambridge, the place in St. Mary’s
Church reserved for the accommodation of Masters of Arts and
Fellow-Commoners is jocularly styled the pit.—­Grad. ad
Cantab.

PLACE.  In the older American colleges, the situation of a student in the class of which he was a member was formerly decided, in a measure, by the rank and circumstances of his family; this was called placing.  The Hon. Paine Wingate, who graduated at Harvard College in the year 1759, says, in one of his letters to Mr. Peirce:—­

“You inquire of me whether any regard was paid to a student on account of the rank of his parent, otherwise than his being arranged or placed in the order of his class?

“The right of precedence on every occasion is an object of importance in the state of society.  And there is scarce anything which more sensibly affects the feelings of ambition than the rank which a man is allowed to hold.  This excitement was generally called up whenever a class in college was placed.  The parents were not wholly free from influence; but the scholars were often enraged beyond bounds for their disappointment in their place, and it was some time before a class could be settled down to an acquiescence in their allotment.  The highest and the lowest in the class was often ascertained more easily (though not without some difficulty) than the intermediate members of the class, where there was room for uncertainty whose claim was best, and where partiality, no doubt, was sometimes indulged.  But I must add, that, although the honor of a place in the class was chiefly ideal, yet there were some substantial advantages.  The higher part of the class had generally the most influential friends, and they commonly had the best chambers in College assigned to them.  They had also a right to help themselves first at table in Commons, and I believe generally, wherever there was occasional precedence allowed, it was very freely yielded to the higher of the class by those who were below.