divvers

English

Etymology

Jocular modification of divinity +‎ -ers. See Oxford "-er".

Noun

divvers (uncountable)

  1. (Oxford University slang, archaic) divinity (as a subject or examination).
    • 1911, A. Hamilton Gibbs, The Compleat Oxford Man, page 211:
      It is indeed no small hardship to give up fourteen successive evenings to an examination so farcical and extravagant as Divvers, which is void of definite purpose or result, when they might have been doing a thousand and one things of enjoyment and interest such as only a University can provide.
    • 1988, Bevis Hillier, Young Betjeman, →ISBN, page 194:
      It was obvious to everybody by then that he was not going to pass "divvers".
    • 2020 May 31, Jackie Brown, “Surviving through History: Oxford’s ambition for learning unplagued by pandemics”, in The Oxford Student‎[1]:
      With the increasing loss of faith by experiences in the trenches, many students after the war turned away from Christianity, some embracing humanism, and even Marxism. As a result, the University supported the abolishment of the biblical literacy exam "Divvers".

Synonyms

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