The Sophs were victorious at every point.—­Yale Banger, Nov. 10, 1846.

My Chum, a Soph, says he committed himself too soon.—­The Dartmouth, Vol.  IV. p. 118.

SOPHIC.  A contraction of sophomoric.

  So then the Sophic army
    Came on in warlike glee.
    The Battle of the Ball, 1853.

SOPHIMORE.  The old manner of spelling what is now known as SOPHOMORE.

The President may give Leave for the Sophimores to take out some particular Books.—­Laws Yale Coll., 1774, p. 23.

His favorite researches, however, are discernible in his observations on a comet, which appeared in the beginning of his Sophimore year.—­Holmes’s Life of Ezra Stiles, p. 13.

I aver thou hast never been a corporal in the militia, or a sophimore at college.—­The Algerine Captive, Walpole, 1797, Vol.  I. p. 68.

SOPHISH GOWN.  Among certain gownsmen, a gown that bears the marks of much service; “a thing of shreds and patches.”—­Gradus ad Cantab.

SOPHIST. A name given to the undergraduates at Cambridge, England. —­Crabb’s Tech.  Dict.

SOPHISTER.  Greek, [Greek:  sophistaes].  In the University of Cambridge, Eng., the title of students who are advanced beyond the first year of their residence.  The entire course at the University consists of three years and one term, during which the students have the titles of First-Year Men, or Freshmen; Second-Year Men, or Junior Sophs or Sophisters; Third-Year Men, or Senior Sophs or Sophisters; and, in the last term, Questionists, with reference to the approaching examination.  In the older American colleges, the Junior and Senior Classes were originally called Junior Sophisters and Senior Sophisters.  The term is also used at Oxford and Dublin. —­Webster.

And in case any of the Sophisters fail in the premises required at their hands, &c.—­Quincy’s Hist.  Harv.  Univ., Vol.  I. p. 518.

SOPHOMORE.  One belonging to the second of the four classes in an American college.

Professor Goodrich, in his unabridged edition of Dr. Webster’s Dictionary, gives the following interesting account of this word.  “This word has generally been considered as an ’American barbarism,’ but was probably introduced into our country, at a very early period, from the University of Cambridge, Eng.  Among the cant terms at that University, as given in the Gradus ad Cantabrigiam, we find Soph-Mor as ’the next distinctive appellation to Freshman.’  It is added, that ’a writer in the Gentlemen’s Magazine thinks mor an abbreviation of the Greek [Greek:  moria], introduced at a time when the Encomium Moriae, the Praise of Folly, by Erasmus, was so generally used.’  The ordinary derivation of the word, from [Greek:  sofos] and [Greek:  moros] would seem, therefore, to be incorrect.  The younger Sophs at Cambridge appear, formerly, to