CHUM. Armenian, _chomm_, or _chommein_, or _ham_, to dwell, stay,
or lodge; French, _chomer_, to rest; Saxon, _ham_, home. A
chamber-fellow; one who lodges or resides in the same
room.--_Webster_.

This word is used at the universities and colleges, both in
England and the United States.

A young student laid a wager with his _chum_, that the Dean was at
that instant smoking his pipe.--_Philip's Life and Poems_, p. 13.

But his _chum_
Had wielded, in his just defence,
A bowl of vast circumference.--_Rebelliad_, p. 17.

Every set of chambers was possessed by two co-occupants; they had
generally the same bedroom, and a common study; and they were
called _chums_.--_De Quincey's Life and Manners_, p. 251.

I am again your petitioner in behalf of that great _chum_ of
literature, Samuel Johnson.--_Smollett, in Boswell_.

In this last instance, the word _chum_ is used either with the
more extended meaning of companion, friend, or, as the sovereign
prince of Tartary is called the _Cham_ or _Khan_, so Johnson is
called the _chum_ (cham) or prince of literature.

CHUM. To occupy a chamber with another.

CHUMMING. Occupying a room with another.

Such is one of the evils of _chumming_.--_Harvardiana_, Vol. I. p.
324.

CHUMSHIP. The state of occupying a room in company with another;
chumming.

In the seventeenth century, in Milton's time, for example, (about
1624,) and for more than sixty years after that era, the practice
of _chumship_ prevailed.--_De Quincey's Life and Manners_, p. 251.

CIVILIAN. A student of the civil law at the university.--_Graves.
Webster_.

CLARIAN. In the University of Cambridge, Eng., a member of Clare
Hall.

CLASS. A number of students in a college or school, of the same
standing, or pursuing the same studies. In colleges, the students
entering or becoming members the same year, and pursuing the same
studies.--_Webster_.

In the University of Oxford, _class_ is the division of the
candidates who are examined for their degrees according to their
rate of merit. Those who are entitled to this distinction are
denominated _Classmen_, answering to the _optimes_ and _wranglers_
in the University of Cambridge.--_Crabb's Tech. Dict._

See an interesting account of "reading for a first class," in the
Collegian's Guide, Chap. XII.

CLASS. To place in ranks or divisions students that are pursuing
the same studies; to form into a class or classes.--_Webster_.