how much they take
on their name in the Buttery Booke."

In the Poems of the Rev. Dr. Dodd, a _size_ of bread is described
as "half a half-penny 'roll.'" Grose, also, in the Provincial
Glossary, says "it signifies the half part of a halfpenny loaf,
and comes from _scindo_, I cut."

In the Encyclopaedia Britannica is the following explanation of
this term. "A _size_ of anything is the smallest quantity of that
thing which can be thus bought" [i.e. by students in addition to
their commons in the hall]; "two _sizes_, or a part of beef, being
nearly equal to what a young person will eat of that dish to his
dinner, and a _size_ of ale or beer being equal to half an English
pint." It would seem, then, that formerly a _size_ was a small
plateful of any eatable; the word now means anything had by
students at dinner over and above the usual commons.

Of its derivation Webster remarks, "Either contracted from
_assize_, or from the Latin _scissus_. I take it to be from the
former, and from the sense of setting, as we apply the word to the
_assize_ of bread."

This word was introduced into the older American colleges from
Cambridge, England, and was used for many years, as was also the
word _sizing_, with the same meaning. In 1750, the Corporation of
Harvard College voted, "that the quantity of commons be as hath
been usual, viz. two _sizes_ of bread in the morning; one pound of
meat at dinner, with sufficient sauce [vegetables], and a
half-pint of beer; and at night that a part pie be of the same
quantity as usual, and also half a pint of beer; and that the
supper messes be but of four parts, though the dinner messes be of
six."--_Quincy's Hist. Harv. Coll._, Vol. II. p. 97.

The students of that day, if we may judge from the accounts which
we have of their poor commons, would have used far different
words, in addressing the Faculty, from King Lear, who, speaking to
his daughter Regan, says:--

"'T is not in thee
To grudge my pleasures,...
... to scant my _sizes_."

SIZE. In the University of Cambridge, Eng., to _size_ is to order
any sort of victuals from the kitchens which the students may want
in their rooms, or in addition to their commons in the hall, and
for which they pay the cooks or butchers at the end of each
quarter; a word corresponding to BATTEL at Oxford.--_Encyc. Brit._

In the Gentleman's Magazine, 1795, p. 21, a writer says: "At
dinner, to _size_ is to order for yourself any little luxu