[OT] Saying "uni" for university

[Nightjar]

That rather depends how many decades you consider to be recent. I can recall it being in use half a century ago.

[Janet]

I first heard it in the UK in the 1960's, but only from people my age who did not go to university.

I never heard it at university or afterwards from university students or graduates, until around 20 years ago.

Janet

[DJC]

Not sure it was the result of any deliberate intent but the converted Polys tended to be X University whereas the those created into the 60s tended to follow the University of X. Probably simply following a pattern of the name denoting an attachment to a vaguely pleasant sounding market town ? a sort of unconscious marketing. (see University of Warwick which is nearer Coventry) When the Polys became 'Unis' all the good names were already taken and also Poly names tended to be of the X Polytechnic form.

[Mike Barnes]

Unknown to me in Cambridge in the late 60s.

[Slomo]

Nope, it's how living languages work. Television becomes TV, university becomes uni, Erasmus becomes Ras, David becomes Dave, Jonathon becomes Jon, then national health service becomes the NHS, the Conservative Party becomes the Tories etc etc etc.

[Sam Plusnet]

And in the early 1970s (same location).

[mcp]

I thought it was "The Yooni, Glasgow"?

[Sam Plusnet]

"Uni" is far easier to pronounce after a lengthy stay at the Student Union bar.

Like pebbles in a river, words get all their rough edges smoothed off over time (alcohol is an accelerant).

[Richard Tobin]

I think you have the last one the wrong way round. The Tories became the Conservative Party.

-- Richard

[Tony Cooper]

Bally good thought, me old china.

[Robert Bannister]

I was familiar with "Uni" in German in 1960, but didn't really come across in English till I came to Australia. Even so, those decades are really only thought of as "recent" to someone of my age.

[Peter Moylan]

Ah, that clarifies something. I had no idea it was a non-UK term.

[Peter Moylan]

It's interesting to see that most of the responses are confined to alt.usage.english, although I don't recognise pamela as a regular in that group.

Some people trim groups because they don't like cross-posting, but I think the main factor is that as soon as someone responds from Google Groups it hijacks the thread. I suppose (I haven't checked) that GG hides the list of newsgroups.

[RH Draney]

And "La Ciudad de Nuestra Señora Reina de Los Angeles de Porciuncula" get shortened to just its first and last letter....

If anyone used "uni" when I was in college (and I'm not sure anyone did), I suspect it would have been understood as short for "uniform"....r

[Peter Moylan]

At my university (The University of Newcastle) an all-staff memo was once circulated insisting on the "of". Supposedly this was because of a clash of names with another university in England. I thought that was a rather weak excuse, because name duplication across countries is not uncommon. It didn't take long for people to go back to saying Newcastle University.

Among students, it was just "the university", because there's only one university in city. And of course in some other settings it's just "Newcastle".

[Peter Moylan]

"Neighbours" seems to have been far more influential in the UK than it ever was in Australia. It seems, for example, to have been responsible for the belief in the UK that Australians end sentences with a rising tone?

[The Natural Philosopher]

"The word "Tory" derives from the Middle Irish word tóraidhe; modern Irish tóraí: outlaw, robber or brigand, from the Irish word tóir, meaning "pursuit", since outlaws were "pursued men". It was originally used to refer to an Irish outlaw and later applied to Confederates or Royalists in arms. The term was thus originally a term of abuse, "an Irish rebel", before being adopted as a political label in the same way as Whig."

Which just hoes to show how Blair's Britain destroyed learning and education.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Its an Irishism and all, an all...

[charles]

In the other (older) Newcastle there was nearly a City University of Newcastle upon Tyne !

[pamela]

That's pretty much my experience too.