Earlier reference

Posted by Word Camel on January 21, 2002

In Reply to: Oxbridge and Oxbridge accents posted by Bruce Kahl on January 21, 2002

: : Where did the term "Oxbridge" come from? I'm also wondering if there is such a thing as an Oxbridge accent. I once introduced two Oxford graduates, whose accents mutated as they spoke into something very unlike the way either had spoken before, clipped, fast and rather hard-to-understand. Perhaps someone experienced in these matters could comment.

: One entry found for Oxbridge.
:
: Main Entry: Ox·bridge
: Pronunciation: 'äks-"brij
: Function: adjective
: Etymology: Oxford + Cambridge
: Date: 1960
: : of, relating to, or characteristic of Oxford and Cambridge Universities -- compare PLATEGLASS, REDBRICK 2

You jogged my memory and I realised that Virginia Woolf mentions "Oxbridge" in "A Room of One's Own" published in 1929

"Fiction here is likely to contain more truth than fact.Therefore I propose, making use of all the liberties and licenses of a novelist, to tell you the story of the two days that preceeded my coming here-how, bowed down by the weight of the subject whidh you have laid upon my shoulders, I pondered it, and made it work in and out of my daily life. I need not say that what I am about to describe has no existance; Oxbridge is and invention; so its Fernham; "I" being only a convenient term for somebody who has no real being. Lies will flow from my lips, but there may perhaps be some truth mixed up with them; it is for you to decide whether any part of it is worth keeping."

So perhaps she did invent it. Any one found anything else?

• Always fair and even-handed The Fallen 01/22/02
  • A note to the poster with apologies Lil_McGil 01/22/02
    • A note to the poster with apologies Bob 01/22/02
      • Ironically... Word Camel 01/22/02
        • Ironically... Jim 01/23/02