Harry-soph

noun, slang

noun, slang ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A student of law or medicine at Cambridge who, being of the same standing as the students in arts in his year, is allowed to wear a full-sleeved gown when they assume their BA gowns, though he does not obtain his actual degree so soon. UK, obsolete, slang

Etymology

According to a 17th century chronicler, from Latin sophister Henricianus after King Henry VIII, but remodeled to fit a fanciful Ancient Greek *ἐρίσοφος (*erísophos, “very wise indeed”), from ἐρι- (eri-) + σοφός (sophós).

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.