or Æger, subs. (university).—1. An excuse for absence on account of sickness; (2) a medical or other certificate of indisposition (GROSE). [ÆGRITUDE (old) = sickness; an ÆGROTANT = an invalid.] Hence READING-ÆGROTAT = leave taken to read for a degree; ÆEGER-ROOM (Felsted School) = the sick room. [Lat. = ‘he is sick.’]—Gradus ad Cantabrigiam, 1803.
1532. Henry VIII. [BURNET, The History of the Reformation of the Church of England, ii. 168]. We have augmented our ÆGRITUDE and distress.
1610. HEALEY, City of God (1620), 478. That sorrow which Tully had rather call EGRITUDE, and Virgil dolour.
1647. BARON, Cyprian Academy, 34. We symbolize in EGRITUDE And simpathize in Cupid’s malady.
1794. Gentleman’s Magazine, 1085. They [at Cambridge] sported an ÆGROTAT, and they sported a new coat!
1853. REV. E. BRADLEY (‘Cuthbert Bede’), The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green, an Oxford Freshman. A deep-laid scheme of yours to post a heap of ÆGERS while you’re a Freshman,… get better and better every term, and make the Dons think that you are improving the shining hours by doing Chapels and Lectures more regularly. Artful Giglamps!
1864. BABBAGE, Passages from the Life of a Philosopher, 37. I sent my servant to the apothecary for a thing called an ÆGROTAT, which I understood … meant a certificate that I was indisposed.
1865. Cornhill Magazine, Feb., 227. A very common method of escaping the tedium of this duty … is ‘to send in an ÆGER’; in other words to improvise an attack of illness.
1865. Temple Bar, Sept., 262. There is a large class of ÆGROTANTS in this country.
1870. Chambers’s Journal, 18 June, 395. I’ll get the receipt from him. I often want a good thing for an ÆGER.
1888. HAWLEY SMART, in Temple Bar, Feb. 213. Instead of applying for leave to my tutor, I had resorted to the old device of pricking ÆGER.
1890. Felstedian, Feb. 2. What’s up with Smith?… He’s not the fellow to go ÆGER for nothing. I do hate that ÆGER-ROOM.
