freshman

From fresh +‎ man.

• IPA^(key): /ˈfɹɛʃmən/

• Audio (Southern England):

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freshman (plural freshmen)

1. (US, Canada, Philippines) a person (of either sex) entering the first year of an institution, especially a high school (ninth grade for US, grade 9 for Canada, grade 7 for Philippines), a university, or legislative body

   At the time I was a wide-eyed freshman, but I was soon to grow jaded and cynical.

   • 1596, Thomas Nashe, Have with You to Saffron-Walden:

     When he was but yet a freshman in Cambridge.

   • 1611, Thomas Middleton, The Roaring Girl, act 3, scene 3:

     Sir Alexander: Then he's a graduate.
     Sir Davy: Say they trust him not?
     Sir Alexander: Then is he held a freshman and a sot,¶ And never shall commence, but being still barr'd¶ Be expuls'd from the master's side to th' twopenny ward,¶ Or else i' th' hole be plac'd.

   • 2019 September 25, Geoffrey Kabaservice, “Impeach Trump? The United States is now in uncharted waters”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     As a country, we now enter what the seven freshmen called “unchartered waters”, with an unprecedented political and constitutional crisis looming on the horizon.

   • January 7 2023, Lisa Mascaro, Farnoush Amiri, “McCarthy elected House speaker in rowdy post-midnight vote”, in AP News‎^[2]:

     Trump may have played a role in swaying some holdouts — calling into a meeting of Republican freshmen the night before, and calling other members ahead of voting.

2. (obsolete) a novice; one in the rudiments of knowledge
   • 1619 August 6, James Howell, The Familiar Letters of James Howell, volume 1, published 1892, Letter XIII, page 39:

     I am but a Freshman yet in France, therefore I can send you no News but that all is here quiet, and 'tis no ordinary News that the French should be quiet.

• (British) fresher
• (US) frosh
• (US, Philippines) freshie
• (Canadian) grade nine student / grade 9 student / Grade 9 student / grade-niner / grade niner
• (Canadian, Philippines, highschool, university) first-year student / first year student / 1st year student / 1st yr student
• (Philippines) grade seven student / grade 7 student / Grade 7 student

• freshman fifteen

• junior
• senior
• sophomore
• upperclassman

• Fehrmans