U.S. [UNDER-1 6 a.] A junior student; a sophomore or freshman.
1875[?]. Yale Record, IV. No. 9, 102/1. Let no one then be deterred from writing by a feeling of false modesty, or by fears lest, because he is an underclassman, he will be slighted.
1888. C. J. Shearn, ’90 at Cornell, 63. Things were rolling smoothly and rapidly along and ’90’s active underclassman history was rapidly drawing to a close.
1896. Fanny Cohen & Eliz. Boyd, eds., Vassar, 53. Each table … bearing a birthday cake besides other much prized delicacies which tantalize the underclassmen as they pass by.
1911. The Palo Altan, IX. 8 Sept., 1/2. The speaker [Miss Nina Moise] then made an appeal to the underclasswomen [of Stanford] to aid in the work [raising funds for the Equal Suffrage League] which is being done for their benefit.
1915. Stella George Stern Perry, in To Dragma, X. Feb., 82. One day one of the seniors, soon to leave Newcomb, asked earnestly, ‘Who will take my orphan?’ I laughed, thinking that she meant some underclasswoman in her special charge. But, no; Pi chapter’s orphans are little waifs in homes or institutions to whom our girls are very conscientious Big Sisters.
