Chums vs Cronies

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Okay this might be a massive case of "use other facts please", but I'll try anyway. We were having a bit of a laugh in the office earlier (as you do) when I called someone "chum." It was then pointed out to me that you could only be someone's "chum" if you'd been at Oxford at the same time as them... furthermore, you can only be someone's "crony" if you were at Cambridge with them.

So I guess the question is - do we have any chums or cronies amongst us? And what other examples are there of (deep breath) commonly-used-words-which-can-actually-only-properly-be-used-in-a-very-narrow-context?

― Andrew Williams, Wednesday, 7 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

If this is the case, I say reclaim said words from the Oxbridge elite (I am not one). 'Chums' should mean non-instrumental pals that you wuv out of sheer human connectedness; 'crony', on the other hand, should connote someone you plot, plan, gossip and dissect with. Cronies cackle evilly together as their common nemesis falls, ha ha.

On my terms, I have very definite cronies at work, some of whom are also kind of chums. However, I have noone who is primarily a chum who is also a crony. I know this doesn't answer the question, but those words are just so *ripe* for my thinking right now.

― Ellie, Wednesday, 7 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm a 'crony' but I never came across that words. BUT - Cambridge was full of its own language. I came across 'Bop', 'Squash', 'Plodge', 'Pitt Club', 'Grad Pad', 'Emma', 'Catz' 'Formal hall' and other terms (of varying degrees of unintelligibility, unendurability and tweeness) during my time there. That and grace in Latin at St. John's.

― Will, Wednesday, 7 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

'Came across that wordS'?!! Gee whiz. I shouldn't have been put within spitting distance of that place.

― Will, Wednesday, 7 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

well cambridge always did attract a very second-rate class of individual, as my chums and i often had cause observe

― mark s, Wednesday, 7 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I am reluctant to disagree. There were some nice people there though. A couple of other (lovely) ILE posters were there, too. But its not up to me to say who they are.

― Will, Wednesday, 7 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Queens College Oxford mafia on this board - me, Pete, Emma, occasional poster Magnus.

― Tom, Wednesday, 7 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

pah this is a public school oxford moomintroll-molesworth old-chumZoR cabal and no mistake matey

― mark s, Wednesday, 7 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

rah

― Will, Wednesday, 7 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I've got one very good crony on the board but all my chums are elsewhere (I think).

― RickyT, Wednesday, 7 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I seem to be the only UCLA grad on the board I know of, and if somebody else is I didn't know them there. Ergo, I am my own Elite Squad of one, and feel chummy with myself all the time. *awaits Dan's salacious replies*

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 7 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Warwick roXoR!

― Mark C, Wednesday, 7 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Yay Warwick! Classic - Arts Centre, cinema, Shakespeare week, Creative Writing course, Writers at Warwick, Clinton and Blair coming to visit.
Dud - pissed rugby blokes and their identikit girlfriends rudely pushing their way to the front of the beer queue at Top B.

I have degrees from Warwick and Cambridge.

― Will, Wednesday, 7 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I must say Oxford seems to produce generally cuddlier chummier individuals, whereas Cambridge seems to produce spikier people more prone to plotting and croniness. Eg. Micheal Palin and Terry Jones vs. John Cleese and Graham Chapman. And, er, other examples.

― Sam, Wednesday, 7 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i r narg -- or was that maths? i r natsci at least

― Alan Trewartha, Wednesday, 7 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Its that bloody icy wind that comes over from the Urals wot does it. Makes everybody Granta way very peevish.

― wil, Wednesday, 7 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

oxford types make vague generalisations with no basis in fact. all of them, the TOSSERS.

― Alan Trewartha, Wednesday, 7 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Narg = not a real gentleman ie one who bores his peers by constantly geeking about a particular subject. Unfairly usually applied to compscis, natscis and mathmos.

― RickyT, Wednesday, 7 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Wasn't 'the Gentleman's Degree' a euphemism for a Third?

― Will, Wednesday, 7 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

the mathmos was that weird gloppy stuff in Barbarella of course.

― Alan Trewartha, Wednesday, 7 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Gentleman's degree = fourth, IIRC. Generally awarded to very dim sporting types.

― RickyT, Wednesday, 7 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

CHUMS: quite blatantly not set in posh upper clarse university. Haf your various stints in Higher Education addled yore BRANES?!

― Sarah, Wednesday, 7 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Yes, oh legwarmer crazed one.

― RickyT, Wednesday, 7 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

eh?

― Will, Wednesday, 7 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

chums = longstanding popular pre-beano UK comic read eagerly by all esp.the working classes (have you met the working classes? mah-vellous people dah-ling!!) and also my mom who in fact then went on to st hughes so what does this prove again exactly??

― mark s, Wednesday, 7 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

CHUMS = Ant and DeXoR Friends pisstake

Legwarmers = Ms Clarke's new obsession (qv every thread she has posted on today)

― RickyT, Wednesday, 7 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Met the working classes? I AM the working classes! Council Flat in Barkin' and all that. Post Office every Monday to get Family Allowance... those were the days. Not very *good* days, mind you...

― Will, Wednesday, 7 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I wanted no part of the archaic and outdated Oxbridge system. I went to Warwick instead, a decision I've never regretted for a second. The rugger buggers were frightfully tiresome though. Whenever I spy a guy in a stripy top, I still get an overwhelming compulsion to punch his lights out.

― Trevor, Wednesday, 7 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Strangely we never used the term 'chums' at Ulster University. Never had good word for Queens though.

― stevo, Wednesday, 7 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Does anyone still say "chum me to the shops?" etc?

― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 7 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

(ok i just looked this up in that Imperialist Organ the New Shorter Oxford and yes indeedy, "chum sh.for chamber fellow Oxford Univ slang equiv of Cambridge crony, 17th C."!!)

k-blimey o-reillyXoR as we liked to say at eton

crony is from khronos greek fer long-lasting

― mark s, Wednesday, 7 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

ps k-reg cf = confer = compare in some bizarro tongue but i can't work out what

― mark s, Wednesday, 7 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The NME is full of CRONY shit infested relationships.The Oxbridge mafia rule the roost.What happened to music being a classless medium that exists because of talent not who you know etc.So it's Cambridge here on ILM and NME have the Oxbridge set.Fuck you guys have done well for yourselves

― dragman, Wednesday, 7 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Yes ILM is raking in the cash for all who contribute. Thank goodness for the old college ties.

― Tom, Wednesday, 7 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

What happened to music being a classless medium that exists because of talent not who you know etc.

Because *clearly* cronyism only came around in the last few years.

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 7 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Speaking of cronyism and classes, interesting sidenote that it is often the lower classes & particular oppressed ethnic minorities who have *resisted* efforts to clean government corruption, as they saw party machine politics as more conducive to their interests than the tender democratic mercies of an overwhelmingly racist population.

― Sterling Clover, Wednesday, 7 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Alas, I shall never go to an Oxbridge uni, but to be honest it doesn't bother me at all. I hope my children, should I have any, reach the same dizzying heights of under-achievement that I have.

― DG, Wednesday, 7 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Damn, I never knew that. I guess it means that one of my song lyrics is completely wrong now. But you know, "Cronies" fit the rhyme and meter scheme a whole lot better than "Chums". Ah well.

― kate, Thursday, 8 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.