Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (UK campus) a sophister, a student in their second or third year.

1698		N. Ward London Spy I 2: Yet [I] could make twice Ten no more than a Junior Soph, or a Chalk Accountant.
1708		J. Browne Almonds for Parrots A2: Labour’d Nonsense only can be found, By studious Sophs, in Calf and Sheep Skin bound.
1719		in D’Urfey Pills to Purge Melancholy in Farmer & Henley VI 298/1: I am a jolly soph.
1728		Pope Essay on the Dunciad 20: A magick Art, which, as the Author very well observes, the Cambridge Sophs are best at.
1731		Swift ‘Cassinus and Peter’ in Miscellanies V (1736) 49: Two College Sophs of Cambridge Growth, Both special Wits.
1793		Bacchanalian Mag. 107: I am a jolly toper, / I am a ragged soph, / Known by the pimples on my face, / With taking bumpers off.
1803		‘A Pembrochian’ Gradus ad Cantabrigiam 125: sophs. senior Sophs or Sophisters; Students in their last year.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1827		W.T. Moncrieff Bashful Man I vi: I rejoice to meet a fellow cantab, a brother soph.
1830		Cambridge Chron. 12 Mar. 4/5: A Junior Soph’s Dream.
1840		in Whibley In Cap and Gown (1889) 173: Sophs and Freshmen fill my place.
1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1873		Sl. Dict.

2. (US) a sophomore.

1842		Dartmouth IV 118: My Chum, a Soph, says he committed himself too soon [DA].
1854		‘The Burial of Euclid by the [Yale] Class of ’57’ sung 8 Nov. in Hall College Words 45: Come, gather all ye tearful Sophs, / And stand around the ring.
1860		‘Biennial Jubilee Song’ in C. Elliot Songs of Yale (1870) 123: Sophs were groaning / And condoling [...] And deep the groan, ‘Biennials are a bore’.
1871		L.H. Bagg Four Years at Yale 253: A Fresh who is notably ‘loud’ and defiant in his bearing; who takes pains to hurl contempt upon his ‘natural rulers’; who returns an ‘Oh, Soph!’ for every ‘Oh, Fresh!’ more than all, who tells tales to the faculty, is thought a proper subject for ‘bringing down’.
1882		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 18 Feb. 3/3: [headline] collegians on a lark / A Crowd of Lively ‘Sophs’ Have a Midnight Orgie With a Party of Young Ladies.
1893		W.K. Post Harvard Stories 107: I was once a god-less Sophomore even as other Sophs.
1903		Ade People You Know 56: We were attacked by a Gang of Sophs.
1917		Daily Palo Alto (Calif.) 3: [headline] Frosh Says Sophs Have No Jazz.
1927		R.E. Howard ‘Cupid vs. Pollux’ in Yellow Jacket Oct. 🌐 As I am coming up the steps of the fraternity house, I meet Tarantula Soons, a soph with an ingrown disposition and a goggle eye.
1928		R. Carr Rampant Age 102: Why don’t they call ’em Sophs and Juniors and so on?
1959		E. De Roo Young Wolves 17: I broke him in as a soph and last year he graduated into a pretty good insurance job.
1978		R. Price Ladies’ Man (1985) 185: ‘I’m a soph.’ That meant nineteen.

3. attrib. use of sense 2.

1778		Stiles Diary II 277: I appointed Stevens a Soph. Waiter in the Hall [DA].
1903		Ade People You Know 56: We captured the president of the Soph Class.
1945		R.M. Lindner Stone Walls and Men 171: After finishing Soph. year went to R.
1967		K. Kolb Getting Straight 41: Work out Unit of Pub. Spk. for soph class.
1967		C. Cooper Jr Farm (1968) 115: She came down for a Soph prom.