Office Hours (noun)
I. of'fice hours'/awfis awrs/ rhymes with "caucus sours"
Definition: The time a TA or a professor spends in their office or
specified room each week. During this time students are encouraged to
attend with questions they may have about the course.
Attested: I first heard of office hours while, as a freshman in high
school, I was visiting my brother at Brown University.
Example: That lecture was confusing. I think I'll go to office hours
tonight to try and straighten out some questions.
Etymology: Because many courses in college include enormous lectures where
it may be daunting or implausible for students to ask questions, office
hours were created. The name is a compound of "office," because that is
usually where they occur, and "hours," to specify that they occur at set
times every week. Their purpose is to create an environment devoted to
answering questions on lectures or homework. Amazingly enough, office
hours tend to become quite crowded in the days right before a prelim.
- Josh Finberg
II. Pronunciation: Aw fis ourz
Definition: Time that a teaching assistant or teacher sets asside to assist students out of the desigated class time.
Attested: I saw this the first time I received a handout from my math teacher.
Etymology: I really have not idea what's going on in class so I'm going to go to office hours today.
Etymology: This term is derived from where the professor or T.A. (teaching assistant) will sit while waiting for students to arrive bearing questions. Hours refers to a standard of time that he or she will remain in the office before giving up helping people (because nobody came) and goes home.
- Amy Gorman
Okies (noun)
rhymes with "low keys"
Definition: a CO-OP dining hall in central campus.
Attested: I first encountered this term when my friend
asked me if I was eating lunch. He suggested "okies."
Example: "Let's go to Okies for lunch."
Etymology: In my experience, "Okies" has developed as a
solution to saying the multisyllable tonguetwister
"Okenshields." Thought it is not very hard to say
"Okenshields," overstressed Cornell students tend to be
lazy whenever they can. So this word has developed as a
shorter more concise method of conveying a location to eat
lunch. There may also be other nicknames for
"Okenshield's" or perhaps even Willard Straight Hall. "Ivy
Room" is easy to say so I do not believe there is any
nickname for it.
-Jesse Yao
Old Stone Row
Definition: includes McGraw Hall, Morrill Hall, and White Hall.
Attested: I first encountered this term when I became a college ambassador.
Example: "Office hours for ling 100.2 can be found in one of the Old Stone Row buildings: Morrill Hall."
Etymology: The stone used to face these buildings was mined from Libe Slope at the time of their erection. Limestone is the type of stone found on the slope. This is probably why Libe Slope has such a sharp gradient. The term Old Stone Row likely is called this because the buildings it includes are all the oldest buildings at Cornell. In fact, the vet college used to be houses in the basement of Morrill Hall, and animals were housed there. The term is particular to Cornell. Likely, only students who are ambassadors know snotty little terms like those. Arts and Sciences students many be more familiar with the term, however. For that reason, the term is specific to the Cornell campus.
- Katie Cody
Orgo
Orgo, ryhmes with porno
Definition: short for organic chemistry.
Attested: I was around pre-meds (see entry) who were complaining about their requirements, including orgo.
Example: "Most pre-meds hate orgo."
Etymology: Since most people are too lazy to pronounce a whole two words, organic chemistry has become orgo. It's other alternative would have been orga, but this does not have a nice ring to it. Also, since this course is known to be hard and uninteresting, it has had the honor of having a short name. Interesting courses like Astronomy usually do not have diminutives; people think it is worth pronouncing.
- Naim Darghouth