Why are college freshman referred to as ‘Frosh’?
I assume it’s just a slang corruption of “freshman” (which itself dates to the 16th century), a slang usage the OED dates back to at least 1915. Their definition: “A college freshman; a member of a freshman sports team. Also freshmen collect., and attrib.”
Where I go to school now in the UK, they call freshman “freshers”; so variations abound, I’m sure.
Interestingly (or not): on a side note, both frosh and fresher have alternate connotations – both related to frogs(!). “Frosh” being an obsolete word for frog, and “fresher” meaning a young frog. Maybe those damn French have something to do with it;).
I always assumed it was because the freshmen and the sophomores were always linked together, and it was easier to say frosh/soph than freshmen/sophomores. Of course, I heard “frosh” in HS too, so maybe that’s not an issue in college.
The American Heritage Dictionary says:
The OED says the same, and also lists it as North American slang.
When I first came upon the term “frosh”, my first thought (beyond “What the hell…?”) was that the term “freshmen” had been deemed sexist in some circles and was now being avoided.
Is that really why the term has come about? I don’t know. However, I did a quick Google search on “frosh freshman sexist” and came up with this site which holds out the term “freshman” as a term that should be avoided. The reason they give in the paragraph preceding their list seems to be pragmatic: these terms might piss somebody off, so you might as well not use them.
I know at my university, the term “freshman” isn’t exactly accurate: 70% of the incoming students (and 70% of the school population) are female!
I go to an all-women’s college, and the “freshmen” here are called either first-year students or freshwomen. I have never heard “frosh” used here.
I’m in Canada, and the term ‘freshmen’, along with sophomore, etc., isn’t used much up here. We’re either first-year students, second-year, and so on. But Frosh was used our first week of university for Frosh Week, our week to get oriented to the new city, new school, and life as a university student. After that week was over, we didn’t hear it again (well, it’s been almost three months since Frosh Week.)