Oxbridge
Sign in to savethumb|Arms of the University of Cambridge (left) and the [[University of Oxford (right)]] Oxbridge is a portmanteau of the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, the two oldest, wealthiest, and most prestigious universities of the United Kingdom. The term is used to refer to them collectively, in contrast to other British universities, and more broadly to describe characteristics reminiscent of them, often with implications of superior social or intellectual status or elitism.
Article
7 sectionsContents
- Origins
- Meaning
- Criticism
- Related terms <span class="anchor" id="Camford"></span>
- See also
- References
- External links
thumb|Arms of the University of Cambridge (left) and the [[University of Oxford (right)]] Oxbridge is a portmanteau of the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, the two oldest, wealthiest, and most prestigious universities of the United Kingdom. The term is used to refer to them collectively, in contrast to other British universities, and more broadly to describe characteristics reminiscent of them, often with implications of superior social or intellectual status or elitism.
==Origins== Although both universities were founded more than eight centuries ago, the term Oxbridge is relatively recent. In William Makepeace Thackeray's novel Pendennis, published in 1850, the main character attends the fictional Boniface College, Oxbridge. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first recorded use of the word was by Virginia Woolf, who, citing Thackeray, referenced it in her 1929 extended essay ''A Room of One's Own. The term was used in the Times Educational Supplement in 1957, and the following year in Universities Quarterly''.