Pl. burschen. [Ger. bursch, bursche, fellow-student, young fellow:—MHG. burse, a. L. bursa = BURSA 2, whence the sense passed in university slang to a student living in a bursa. See Grimm, Kluge.] A student in a German university. Hence Burschenism, nonce-wd., the manner and customs of the burschen.
1830. Carlyle, Richter, Misc. (1857), II. 138, note. Burschenism is not without its meaning, more than Oxfordism or Cambridgeism. The Bursch strives to say in the strongest language he can: ‘See! I am an unmoneyed scholar, and a free man.’
