[OT] Saying "uni" for university

[Brian Howie]

In message , pamela writes

It was Glasgow Yooni when I was there in the late 60s

Brian

[Another Dave]

But certainly wasn't in 1960-63 when I was there.

Another Dave

[HVS]

On 09 Jun 2016, NY wrote

-snip-

(raises hand, albeit not for Bristol)

I've always assumed it's institution-specific. As far as I can recall, the universities I attended were only ever referred to as "the University of Ottawa" and "the University of Toronto" (or informally as "U of O"/"U of T").

Admittedly, the ownership stamp on some U-of-O equipment read "Universite d'Ottawa University", but that was a special case - like signs reading "Bienvenue a Montreal Welcomes You".**

(I seem to recall hearing some years ago that the shared-noun construction has been abandoned as contorting both languages (which if true is IMHO a pity; I liked some of the inventive constructions it generated.)

** Apologies for the omission of accents; it's been so long since I've needed to use them that I've forgotten the Alt+ codes.

[Clive George]

I heard uni earlier than that (as it appears did plenty of other people here...)

[The Natural Philosopher]

I suspect the truth is that it was a limited regional/social subset thing until the Blair Years, when dumbing down everything to make it 'accessible' was the politically correct way to proceed.

[Clive George]

20 years ago is pre-Blair. I heard it and apparently plenty of others around here did to earlier than that.

So no, you're talking crap - you're letting your irrational beliefs cloud your judgement again.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Yes it could be. I didn't go to uni, but the term wasn't used by my pals who did. In the '60s.

[Tim Watts]

It's however the university chooses to name itself.

cf:

Durham University

University of Greenwich

[Bob Eager]

I first heard it on Neighbours; never before that.

I wonder if that caused an Australia -> GB transfer.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Only by 10 months

I heard it and apparently plenty of others

Except that I have only really heard it in the last 15 years in common usage.

It certainly was never used by anyone I knew at my time at university.

Or indeed later.

Which supports my contention that it was restricted to a subset of students/parents until around 15 years ago when the whole 'let's call everything a university and send all the kids to one, *because we all know that a degree means higher wages*' meme started

I mean, did people actually fall for that?

[The Natural Philosopher]

Well that would explain why I never heard it at all

I have in my life watched at most 30 seconds of 'neighbours' and heard at most 20 minutes of it.

[Athel Cornish-Bowden]

I first came across it, probably 50 years ago, as an Australian term, not used in the UK in any circles that I moved in.

[Clive George]

Yes, you probably predate it.

Did you hang around with students/prospective students a lot after leaving university? That's where the language will come from.

And that's where you go off the rails.

It's language. Language gets transmitted by various means, but it's not the result of some political shenanigans like you claim, it's just regular communication. The idea that it's Australian slang which made it across here in the late 80s via TV seems a reasonable guess - no need to make it political. People will have jumped on the opportunity to use a short form for informal communication - the word university is a bit of a mouthful.

[The Natural Philosopher]

The mere fact that you say that shows that you are of exactly that generation I described.

The generation when being able to pronounce spell and correctly use Long Words ceased being a desirable object of some pride, and became 'elitist affectation'.

That race to the bottom may have started before Blair, but it was Blair that gave it a turbocharger.

[RJH]

Class of '88, Urban Studies. Happy days :-)

And yes, mates from up 'ill said uni.

[Clive George]

You mean Thatcher's generation? I was 8 when she came to power, so my formative years were spent under her government. Middle class upbringing, no estuary english here.

Bollocks. And coming from you, hypocritical bollocks. You can't spell and correctly use even short words yourself, as you've demonstrated many many times.

It's not "elitist affectation", it's just evolving language.

"Uni" isn't a race to the bottom, it's just a perfectly reasonable shortening of a word.

[Mack A. Damia]

Isn't this just another "apocopation"?

[Richard Heathfield]

'S jus' an apo, mate, jus' an apo.

[Peter Young]

When I lived in Harrow off the Hill, a resident I came across called it " Arra in the 'ollow".

Peter.

[Whiskers]

OED finds it from 1898:

"uni, n." OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2016. Web. 9 June

2016.

Chiefly Austral. and N.Z.

Colloq. abbrev. of university n. 1. Also attrib. and Comb. Cf. Univ n.

1898 Bulletin (Sydney) 17 Dec. (Red Page), The only classical idioms I have found..are rotter, i.e., an adept in learning anything; and panem agere, Sydney Uni. slang for ?doing a loaf?. 1913 Lincoln (Nebraska) Daily News 28 Feb. 1/7 (heading) Uni. men depart to judge debates. 1929 K. S. Prichard Coonardoo 163 Stay in Perth, go to the uni, be a lawyer or doctor, or something? 1962 A. Seymour One Day of Year 103, I think I might ditch my course. Leave Uni. 1966 ?L. Lane? ABZ of Scouse 112 Uni-type, a university student. 1975 M. Bradbury Hist. Man x. 169 All the girls at the uni, what she calls the uni, in her set talk about separating. 1984 Metro (Auckland) Mar. 15/2 The poor fool who sat the exam and got potted has been threatened with having his own accreditation cancelled and may be banned from sitting the exam for another two years?when he planned to go to uni in this year.

I think it was common in my UK school in the 1960s, as in "yu wanna go uni?"