freshers’ flu
n.— «Freshers’ Flu is a label used to describe the heavy cold symptoms—including headaches, cold sweats and a runny nose—experienced by many students in their first few weeks of university. It strikes at a time when students’ immune systems have been lowered by the social whirlwind of Freshers’ week, which is often characterised by late nights, excessive drinking and poor nutrition.» —“BUPA: How to blow the nose on ‘Freshers flu’” Politics.co.uk Sept. 11, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Many of us struggled with the Old English poem “Beowulf” in high school. But what if you could actually hear “Beowulf” in the English of today? There’s a new translation by Maria Dahvana Headley that uses contemporary...
Amid court-ordered busing in the 1970s, a middle-school teacher tried to distract her nervous students on the first day of class with this strange assignment: find a monarch caterpillar. The result? A memorable lesson in the miracle of metamorphosis...