eply tending to obscenity," was formerly used more
generally among the English wits. The noun _sell_ has of late been
revived in this country, and is used to a certain extent in New
York and Boston, and especially among the students at Cambridge.

I sought some hope to borrow, by thinking it a "_sell_"
By fancying it a fiction, my anguish to dispel.
_Poem before the Iadma of Harv. Coll._, 1850, p. 8.

SELL. To give an unexpected answer; to deceive; to cheat.

For the love you bear me, never tell how badly I was
_sold_.--_Yale Lit. Mag._, Vol. XX. p. 94.

The use of this verb is much more common in the United States than
that of the noun of the same spelling, which is derived from it;
for instance, we frequently read in the newspapers that the Whigs
or Democrats have been _sold_, i.e. defeated in an election, or
cheated in some political affair. The phrase _to sell a bargain_,
which Bailey defines "to put a sham upon one," is now scarcely
ever heard. It was once a favorite expression with certain English
writers.

Where _sold he bargains_, Whipstitch?--_Dryden_.

No maid at court is less ashamed,
Howe'er for _selling bargains_ famed.--_Swift_.

Dr. Sheridan, famous for punning, intending _to sell a bargain_,
said, he had made a very good pun.--_Swift, Bons Mots de Stella_.

SEMESTER. Latin, _semestris_, _sex_, six, and _mensis_, month. In
the German universities, a period or term of six months. The
course of instruction occupies six _semesters_. Class distinctions
depend upon the number of _semesters_, not of years. During the
first _semester_, the student is called _Fox_, in the second
_Burnt Fox_, and then, successively, _Young Bursch_, _Old Bursch_,
_Old House_, and _Moss-covered Head_.

SENATE. In the University of Cambridge, England, the legislative
body of the University. It is divided into two houses, called
REGENT and NON-REGENT. The former consists of the vice-chancellor,
proctors, taxors, moderators, and esquire-beadles, all masters of
arts of less than five years' standing, and all doctors of
divinity, civil law, and physic, of less than two, and is called
the UPPER HOUSE, or WHITE-HOOD HOUSE, from its members wearing
hoods lined with white silk. The latter is composed of masters of
arts of five years' standing, bachelors of divinity, and doctors
in the three faculties of two years' standing, and is known as the
LOWER HOUSE, or BLACK-HOOD HOUSE, its members wearing black silk
h