In a small college town like Gainesville, it’s inevitable that the students develop their own unique language filled with sayings and shortened phrases that only they would understand. Here is a dictionary of our own unique language so everyone else can finally understand what the heck we’re talking about when we tell them we’re studying for a Good Life exam.ACR (noun): Abbreviation for Alachua County Residents, or people who have lived n Gaineville their whole lives.
Balls (noun): The greatest bar in Midtown and maybe the entire state of Florida. Charges to your card appear as Balls Bookstore to fool mom and dad into thinking you actually aren’t an alcoholic.
Century Tower (noun): The bell tower located in the middle of UF’s campus — the ultimate point of reference for freshmen when they inevitably get lost on campus.
Club West (noun): This is not a nightclub in downtown Gainesville, but rather the location of all-night study sessions; it’s actually called Library West, for all you non-Gators reading this.
DM (noun): Short for Dance Marathon, a popular on-campus philanthropy event in which nearly 800 students stay awake and on their feet for 26.2 hours straight to raise money for Children’s Miracle Networks.
Good Life (noun): The shortened named for an infamous class all freshmen are required to take during their first year, “What is the Good Life?” Most students agree that the meaning of a good life is finishing this pesky class.#ItsGreatUF (noun): A social media hashtag commonly used by UF students to express their love for the school. Could also be used in a sarcastic sense when dealing with frustrating occurences on campus (i.e. finding a parking spot or losing a sporting event).
J-School (noun): Refers to UF’s College of Journalism and Communications. Also known as Weimer, a.k.a. the greatest building on the UF campus.
Jorts (noun): A term for jean shorts, a.k.a. the most common form of pants worn by fraternity gentlemen on football gamedays. Often excessively short and ripped, exposing too much man thigh for one’s liking.
Kent Fuchs (noun): The name of our president. It’s pronounced “Fox,” but many students purposely pronounce it wrong in phrases like “You Kent Fuchs with us!”
Krishna (noun): A right of passage every student goes through is eating lunch provided by the Hare Krishnas on the Plaza of the Americas. For just $5 you can get enough vegan food to fill you up all day. Hint: Wednesdays are famous for having great spaghetti and tortilla chips.
Rainesville (noun): An alternative name for Gainesville due to the plethora of rain we experience here, especially during the summer months.
Swamp Restaurant (noun): Located across from campus in Midtown, this restaurant and bar is not to be confused with The Swamp. This iconic place is known for its school-spirited décor, live music and beer-filled Friday nights.
The French Fries (noun): A statue and common meeting place for students by Marston Science Library. Many secret football ticket exchanges go down here.
Tebow (noun/verb): The last name of one of UF’s former quarterbacks. Also used to describe the pose pictured below.
Mid (noun): The abbreviated form of Midtown, a collection of bars and restaurants along University Avenue frequented by UF students.PBS (noun): Acronym for Pizza by the Slice, a hole-in-the-wall pizza joint in Midtown often flooded with hoards of drunken students in the wee hours of the night.
The Potato (noun): Another common meet-up location on Turlington Plaza. (UF has a thing for spuds, okay?) If you’re lucky, you’ll spot the harmless graffiti students have placed on the statue to make it look like Mr. Potato Head.
The Swamp (noun): Also known as Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, The Swamp is our football stadium that many teams may enter, but only the Gators get out alive.
UF Alert (noun): The annoying text message and email alerts sent out multiple times in one hour by UFPD. They almost always announce a super general description for a crime suspect and almost always say that he or she is not caught.
UF Parking (noun): The mythological spaces that students can only use if they have 500 credits, and even then they are constantly subject to tickets from UFPD.“We Are The Boys” (noun): The song students sing at the beginning of every fourth quarter at home football games in The Swamp.
Photo credits: www.magazine.ufl.eduwww.bigplay.comwww.quickmeme.com