Oxbridgen.adj.
/ˈɒksbrɪdʒ/, U.S. /ˈɑksˌbrɪdʒ/ A. n.
Originally: a fictional university, esp. regarded as a composite of Oxford and Cambridge. Subsequently also (now esp.): the universities of Oxford and Cambridge regarded together, esp. in contrast to other British universities.
ΘΚΠ
society > education > place of education > college or university > [noun] > university > types of
state college1806
state university1811
Oxbridge1849
Camford1850
state1899
multiversity1926
Ivy League1939
red brick1943
televersity1950
televarsity1961
1849 W. M. Thackeray Pendennis (1850) I. xxix. 286 ‘Rough and ready, your chum seems,’ the Major said. ‘Somewhat different from your dandy friends at Oxbridge.’
1883 R. Broughton Belinda I. i. ii. 24 You may not think much of him, but I can assure you that he is considered a great luminary at Oxbridge.
1906 V. Woolf in Q. Bell Virginia Woolf (1972) I. App. c 205 You see a pink cheeked boy whose only talk is of cricket..enter upon his first term at Oxbridge.
1949 W. Moberly Crisis in Univ. ii. 48 ‘Redbrick’ University has always been, and ‘Oxbridge’ is fast becoming, the university of the busy.
1973 D. Robinson Rotten with Honour 9 We'll have—Hale... Twenty-six, Oxbridge, degree in languages.
2002 Architectural Rec. (Nexis) Oct. 79 Just as Princeton imitated Oxbridge, the Renaissance architects imitated Rome and the English Palladians imitated the Renaissance.
B. adj.
Of, relating to, characteristic of, or reminiscent of Oxbridge (frequently with implication of superior social or intellectual status).
ΘΚΠ
society > education > place of education > college or university > [adjective] > university > types of university
Oxbridge1850
non-collegiate1853
provincial1875
Ivy League1939
red brick1943
Oxbridgean1959
plate glass1968
1850 W. M. Thackeray Pendennis II. iii. 23 He had taken the manuscript out of a long-neglected chest, containing..old Oxbridge scribbling books, his old surplice, and battered cap and gown.
1932 Mind 41 262 ‘J. L. Fixley’, an ‘Oxbridge’ don.
1964 S. Brittan Treasury under Tories i. 21 One characteristic that Whitehall does have in common with other élite groups is its overwhelmingly Oxbridge character.
1982 Financial Times (Nexis) 24 Mar. i. 15 Most of the accents at SDP campaign headquarters are English and often Oxbridge.
2001 J. Hamilton-Paterson Loving Monsters (2002) xiii. 262 The Embassy and the brass-hats and all the Oxbridge intelligence types winced and moaned.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2005; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.adj.1849