HONORS.  In American colleges, the principal honors are appointments as speakers at Exhibitions and Commencements.  These are given for excellence in scholarship.  The appointments for Exhibitions are different in different colleges.  Those of Commencement do not vary so much.  The following is a list of the appointments at Harvard College, in the order in which they are usually assigned:  Valedictory Oration, called also the English Oration, Salutatory in Latin, English Orations, Dissertations, Disquisitions, and Essays.  The salutatorian is not always the second scholar in the class, but must be the best, or, in case this distinction is enjoyed by the valedictorian, the second-best Latin scholar.  Latin or Greek poems or orations or English poems sometimes form a part of the exercises, and may be assigned, as are the other appointments, to persons in the first part of the class.  At Yale College the order is as follows:  Valedictory Oration, Salutatory in Latin, Philosophical Orations, Orations, Dissertations, Disputations, and Colloquies.  A person who receives the appointment of a Colloquy can either write or speak in a colloquy, or write a poem.  Any other appointee can also write a poem.  Other colleges usually adopt one or the other of these arrangements, or combine the two.

At the University of Cambridge, Eng., those who at the final examination in the Senate-House are classed as Wranglers, Senior Optimes, or Junior Optimes, are said to go out in honors.

I very early in the Sophomore year gave up all thoughts of obtaining high honors.—­Bristed’s Five Years in an Eng.  Univ., Ed. 2d, p. 6.

HOOD.  An ornamented fold that hangs down the back of a graduate, to mark his degree.—­Johnson.

  My head with ample square-cap crown,
  And deck with hood my shoulders.
    The Student, Oxf. and Cam., Vol.  I. p. 349.

HORN-BLOWING.  At Princeton College, the students often provide themselves at night with horns, bugles, &c., climb the trees in the Campus, and set up a blowing which is continued as long as prudence and safety allow.

HORSE-SHEDDING.  At the University of Vermont, among secret and literary societies, this term is used to express the idea conveyed by the word electioneering.

HOUSE.  A college.  The word was formerly used with this signification in Harvard and Yale Colleges.

If any scholar shall transgress any of the laws of God, or the House, he shall be liable, &c.—­Quincy’s Hist.  Harv.  Univ., Vol.  I. p. 517.

If detriment come by any out of the society, then those officers [the butler and cook] themselves shall be responsible to the House.—­Ibid., Vol.  I. p. 583.

A member of the college was also called a Member of the House.

The steward is to see that one third part be reserved of all the payments to him by the members of the House quarterly made.—­Quincy’s Hist.  Harv.  Univ., Vol.  I. p. 582.