[lit-ideas] All creatures, greats and smalls (Is: Lit. Hum.)

From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Sun, 4 Nov 2007 22:41:34 EST
"The Great Go" (Is: Literæ Humaniores: The Secret History, anyone?
 
I thought the opposition between 'greats' was with the now current PPE  
programme (Philosophy, Politics and Economics). I see as per quotes below that  
the 
reference is merely temporal. First the small, then the great.
 
I notice there is a typo in the quote in the OED from Fowler, on Lit. Hum.,  
who spells it "Litterae" sic with double t. Usage indeed!
 
Cheers,
 
JL
 
smalls:  
 
Univ. colloq. The popular name (later superseded at Oxford by ‘smalls’) 
for the first examination for the degree of B.A., officially called  ‘
Responsions’ 
at Oxford and ‘The Previous Examination’ at Cambridge (discontinued in the  
20th c.). 
 
1820  Gentl. Mag. XC. I. 32 
At present the Examination [at Oxford] is divided  into a Little-go and a 
Great-go; colloquial appellations of the facetious great  children sucking at 
the 
bosom of Alma Mater. 
 
1824  Blackw. Mag. Oct. 461 note, 
The little-go is a new classical examination lately  instituted at Cambridge. 
 
1838 F. W. ROBERTSON Lett. 23 May (1882) I. 37 [dated ‘Brazenose,  Oxford’], 
I have to take..my ‘little go’ this term. 
 
1849 THACKERAY Pendennis iii, 
He's coaching me and some other men for the little  go. 
 
1860 M. BURROWS  Pass & Class i. (1866) 11 
Responsions, commonly called ‘Little  go’ or, still more familiarly, ‘Smalls’
. 
 
1876  DARWIN Life & Lett. (1887) I. 47 
In my second year I had to work for a month or two  to pass the Little Go, 
which I did easily.
 
1882 _L.  CAMPBELL_ 
(http://0-dictionary.oed.com.csulib.ctstateu.edu/help/bib/oed2-c.html#l-campbell)
  Life Clerk Maxwell vi. 152 
Some time before the little-go examination. 
 
1889  Boy's Own Paper 3 Aug. 693/3  First came the three answers given to the 
‘Little Go’ question.
1852 MRS.  GASKELL Let. 19 May (1966) 191,  
I (boldly) asked them all to come here..so we had an impromptu  little-go 
last night.  
1858 Leisure Hour 15 July 448/1 This  preliminary spread, or ‘little go’.  
1909 J. R. WARE Passing Eng. 169/1 Little  go, first imprisonment, first 
invented by a fallen university man.  
1960 WENTWORTH & FLEXNER  Dict. Amer. Slang 321/1  Little go, an unimportant, 
unexciting, or incomplete  attempt, effort, task, or performance.  

J. L. Speranza, Esq.  

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[lit-ideas] All creatures, greats and smalls (Is: Lit. Hum.)

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