Nowadays it's common place to say "uni" for university.
Many decades ago at my university I never heard anyone say this. In fact, I never heard anyone anywhere say this.
Is "uni" something which has emerged in recent decades?
It depends on what you mean by "recent". I applied to enter uni in 1964. It was certainly a common term then.
Data point: "Uni" (for "University") was in common use in Sheffield, UK by the early 1980s.
I am with you 100%. To me, it is 'university', the short form is only justifiable on a signpost where there is lack of space.
And I don't think we can blame the US for this one, it's usually 'college' rather than university.
I was thinking of the UK. Do you mean in Australia?
Yes, Its part of the dumbing down of academia, and acknowledges the fact that a 5 syllable word is simply too much for the poor dears to pronounce...
Common in York in 1986
Another related question: why is it that the "Sunday Name" of some universities is "The University of X" rather than "X University" which is the far more common usage in normal parlance? Has there always been this distinction (eg between "the good universities" and "the rest", or between traditional universities and former polytechnics), or is it a recent thing?
If you ask someone where they studied for their degree, would anyone ever reply "The University of Bristol" rather than "Bristol University"? :-)
I think the formal official titles are always 'the University of Cambridge' etc etc. Common parlance flips that to 'Cambridge University...
Vulgar parlance makes it 'Uni'.
Dunno, but its other half, 'varsity' is given as mid 17th century.
Cheers
Not sure I've ever heard that used outside of 'varsity matches' - i.e between Oxford and Cambridge on a sports field.
Which suggests it harks back to the days when those were the only universities at all..
When I was at Cambridge, 1957-1960, it was just "The University". Oxford was "The Other Place".
Peter.
En el artículo , NY escribió:
Neither. They'd say "Bristol".
Ah. You may be right. I've seen some UK universities' web sites (eg Newcastle, Lancaster) where they use "X University" in contexts where other sites use "The University of X" (eg banner logo and Contact Us postal address) so I wondered if there was a distinction in official title. Maybe some universities just use the informal common-parlance name in their official documents, and there is no distinction.
Not if you went to the Poly :-)
I *did* go to the Poly! :-) And yes, even us polyplebeians used the word "Uni" from time to time (as in, "This is Dave, from the Uni").
I should tell you (briefly) about Dave. He was a well-spoken, well-presented young man studying Theology at Sheffield Uni(versity). When I first got talking to him and asked where he was from, he answered "Arra". Now, my knowledge of the UK is reasonable but far from encyclopaedic, so I asked him where that was, and he told me it was on the north-western side of London. Light dawned. "Oh, do you mean Harrow?" "No," he said in perfect RP, "I mean Arra. Harrow is up the 'ill."
At least he wasn't from Fort Neath.
Cheers
First I heard of it was with my niece - about 20 odd years ago. She went to St Andrews, so did wonder if it started there. Nicknames that end in the 'y' sound are a Scottish thing. Before that, it seemed to be varsity.
I think it was around in the 1960's in the UK.
Certainly wasn't in the late 60s when I applied.
Probably has a limited spread in certain sectors.
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