shmen n. a (college or university) freshman. Also plural. Editorial Note: This term is usually gender-neutral. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
It was a dark and stormy night. So begins the long and increasingly convoluted prose of Edwards Bulwer-Lytton’s best-known novel. Today the annual Bulwer-Lytton Contest asks contestants for fanciful first sentences that are similarly...
How do social media algorithms shape the way we communicate? A new book argues that the competition for clicks is changing the way we speak and write, from the so-called “YouTube accent” to the surprising evolution of the word preppy. Also: A...
The term ‘shmen (or ‘shwomen) seems especially prevalent at Dartmouth College, where its initial sound has come to modify other words to indicate that they relate to freshmen: ‘shmob (freshman mob) and ‘shmenu (freshman “menu” or the Freshman Book/Green Book, a photograhpic directory of new students).
Originally a jab at political correctness, the modification of this slang word to “‘shpeople” and “‘shperson” have also become increasingly popular on campus.