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#78627 08/21/02 04:42 PM
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Hi, I was asked by someone if I new any other way to call what is known as "crib sheets" or "cheat sheets". I haven't had much luck with synonym finders because they do better with single words.

Does anyone else know of names to call those cheating papers or notes you bring into tests, or the notes to read up on the highlights of something you never got around to reading?

So far known:
Cliff Notes
Coles Notes
Crib Sheets
Cheat Sheets
Cheater's Aid

Thanks
Ali


#78628 08/21/02 04:51 PM
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Cliff Notes is something quite else, being a collection of short form classics and coming with a distinctive cover that would prevent sneaking in to a test if not removed.

I've heard pony or horse used in this sense.


#78629 08/21/02 04:57 PM
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this might be helpful:

Dear Word Detective: A colleague has asked me if I can tell him the origin of "crib" (in the sense of a prepared set of answers). I cannot find anything on the etymology of this word, although I suspect it comes from "scribere." Can you help? -- Jon Bradshaw, via the internet.

"Prepared set of answers"? Say, do you happen to work in the public relations industry, perhaps as a government spokesperson? You certainly have the requisite gift of golden euphemism. Back where I come from, "cribs" were also known as "cheat sheets," and possession of one during a school exam was grounds for expulsion. More tolerated were the "ponies," or literal translations (which "carried" us), that we sometimes used in class to practice translating classical works from Latin.

Speaking as a former Latin student, however, I think you deserve at least ten extra points for your excellent guess that "crib" in this sense comes from the Latin "scribere," meaning "to write." It's such a logical suggestion that it ought to be true, and it's a darn shame that it isn't. The first question that occurs to most people when they encounter the use of "crib" to mean "cheater's aid" is whether this usage can possibly be related to the sort of "crib," or small enclosed bed, in which infants sleep so innocently. Surprisingly, the answer is yes. When "crib" entered Old English from the Old High German "krippa" sometime before A.D. 1000, it originally meant "manger," the trough or stall where animals are fed. Over the subsequent centuries, "crib" acquired all sorts of other meanings, including "small cabin," "narrow room," "basket," and, of course, "child's bed" around 1649.
It was the "basket" sense of "crib" that apparently gave rise in the 18th century to the use of "crib" as a verb meaning "to steal." The exact logic of this transference is unclear, but it may stem from thieves' use of baskets or bags to conceal the articles they filched from stalls and shops. In any case, by 1778, "crib" had also come to mean "to plagiarize," or steal someone else's written work, and by 1827 "crib" was being used to mean "a translation surreptitiously used by a student to cheat." Today, of course, "crib" is used more broadly to mean anything containing answers that one ought to know without such an aid.


#78630 08/21/02 05:00 PM
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Cliff Notes is something quite else, being a collection of short form classics and coming with a distinctive cover that would prevent sneaking in to a test if not removed.

Right. I remember seeing the coles notes when I lived in canada, and they had bright yellow and black striped covers. I think cliffs are done up the same. They were generally considered cheating tools, because it got you (theoretically) out of reading that classic book assignment. I'd always see a few of those in the hall before exams.

So to clarify, I would like to hear all sorts of names for cheating tools, either in the class room, or right before you run in.

Ali



#78631 08/21/02 05:07 PM
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Latin teachers used to condemn use of translations, which were called "trots".


#78632 08/21/02 05:08 PM
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Thanks. I did fortunately find that first when I did a google, but it was the only useful bit of information I've found so far. Most of the hits in the search engine are for actual cheat/crib sheets, rather than giving alternate terms for them.

Thanks

Ali


#78633 08/21/02 05:10 PM
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That one's interesting. Do you know how they came up with the word "trots"? Is it short for something? Or a play on "ponies"?


#78634 08/22/02 08:33 PM
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Gee, Fiberbabe, I wonder where his grave is....

Though this isn't strictly a word question, I'd really like to know all of your-all's opinions on Cliff Notes. Does anyone outside of school EVER use them? And if they are used by students, are the students really being deprived of anything?


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I guess people still use them because they still sell them.

And do the students lose? You damn betcha. Can you imagine a book of puns with nothing but the punch lines?

Seriously, they lose the ability to tell the difference between good and bad writing. You become uncritical.

IMHO the only way to become a good writer is to read a LOT. So when you don't read you seriously undermine your ability to write.





TEd
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