For the love of God can adults please stop saying uni

[CressidaEgg]

Let's reclaim the five syllable word. University. It grates to read MNers talking about their DC going off to "uni" or even about their own time at "uni". Just call it what it is: university.

My DS has gone off to the uni Open Day today to have a squiz around the place and listen to a few forums. My DD is already at uni. Uni uni uni. NEVER USED THE WHOLE WORD.

I guess everyone has their bugbear; I hate when couples punctuate every sentence they say to each other with “babe”.

Yabu to want people to stop using a word just because you dont like it. I called it uni when I went and that's what it will stay.

However you've started a thread that made me chuckle before going to sleep. So I guess in a way YANBU for that

GrannyHaddock I really wouldn’t bother with the quinoa. You may find that in 20 years it is back where it belongs, anyway: in tne compost.

I never say Uni. A word that is ugly slang doesn’t feel right to describe what should be a place of intellect.

These replies are so savage

It's like being mauled by dead sheep

I went to a Poly.
We used to call it Poly, not Polytechnic, or Polytechnical College.

No difference, IMO.

It's now a University and I would call it a Uni.

Ridiculous to consider that it is somehow more "adult" to insist on using a full word when there is a perfectly understandable shortening available. Different if it wasn't comprehensible to the majority, but it is.

Unknot your knickerbockers, madam and perhaps put down your mobile telephonic apparatus. Open your refrigerator to get something to cool your heatedness.

But Poly sounds ok Uni doesn’t for some reason in my head👀

I agree it's annoying. University was so different when I was 18. It was more respected and harder to achieve.

My issue is that I went to a College of Higher Education to do a degree, not a uni. So I say 'college' (when talking about me) which sounds American.

Good heavens, I thought the sign that young people respect university was to be sought in whether they turn up to my seminars on time, read the texts thoroughly, prepare their notes and come up with some interesting ideas. I had not idea it was to do with whether their parents abbreviate the word on social media. You live and learn.

For the record, dh got into UCL in 1977 or thereabouts after having bombed his A-levels (and his GCSE's weren't much better). Did eventually get a perfectly respectable 2:1- but there's no way that could happen today.

In further news, despite having graduated in a humanities subject and being very good at the actual professional aspects of his job, he can't spell for toffee and the standard of his written English (grammar, punctuation etc) is deplorable. Everything he needs to write beyond standard reports has to be proof-read by his loving wife (trained at a foreign university nobody has heard of). So much for everything being more stringent in the past. I am a lot stricter with my students that his tutors seem to have been with him.

I never say Uni. A word that is ugly slang doesn’t feel right to describe what should be a place of intellect.

Hahahahahhahahahhahahaha

Can’t really understand what the problem with “uni” is....

Well, if we are asking mumsnetters ( note that I didn't shorten to MNs) to change their ways then please all stop writing "do come along", "do feel free to enjoy yourself" etc because the whole "do" thing really grates me and is just as affected as saying "hun" or "babe" etc. Do stop saying it, thanks so much ☺

Agree that 'college' is not appropriate not only because it's usually used to denote a sixth form / FE college, but also because it's problematic for collegiate universities

I attended a college at Oxford university

Eg You can represent your college on the colleges rugby team, and you can represent the university overall on the university rugby team

Agree in bucketloads, CressidaEgg.

And, may I add, could we start using the word "applications" instead of referring to "Apps" - has speech become so very, very lazy?

Yes, I'm pedantic - and darn proud of it too!

imagine having actual problems

I never say Uni. A word that is ugly slang doesn’t feel right to describe what should be a place of intellect

And yet that ‘place of intellect’ studies that very slang you speak of.

What's with the Neighbours bashing? I've been watching it since the beginning... when I was at college. Not smart enough to go to Uni (). I still watch it now and still love it. . Perhaps if I had spent less time watching mindless soaps I would have gone on to bigger things!

And, may I add, could we start using the word "applications" instead of referring to "Apps"

'Apps' is fine for free/cheap 'do one task' type things but I really hate it when my product manager people use it about large, complex, multifunctional software which has taken many highly skilled people years of effort.

Every day I eschew the motor carriage, mount the omnibus and travel to the university where I work all day reading rude words in Latin and Old English. Because intellect.

A little off topic but why do you say someone is in hospital instead of saying someone is in THE Hospital?

Every day I eschew the motor carriage, mount the omnibus and travel to the university where I work all day reading rude words in Latin and Old English. Because intellect.

And do you study math there?

@Starlight13 I do the "do" thing. I wasn't aware it was affected, though. It's just how I speak. Hardly the same as abbreviating University to "uni".

I think 'do' is polite. I don't really say it but I use it in emails, where it's easy to misread the tone. e.g. 'Do get back to me if you need anything else' sounds less abrupt IMO than just 'get back to me if you need anything else'.

I do the "do" thing. I wasn't aware it was affected, though. It's just how I speak. Hardly the same as abbreviating University to "uni".

To me they're both a British quirk and in that sense quite similar.

I'm not sure quirk is really the word, maybe a British thing.

When I read both of them, it's in a slightly upper class English accent.

Bashun because to a Brit's ear, when you say 'the hospital' it seems to imply a particular place, whereas 'hospital' without the definite article means any hospital. So if you don't know which hospital the person is in it makes more sense to just say 'hospital'.
And if you did know which hospital, you'd say 'he's in Barts' or St Thomas' or whatever.
When I hear Americans say 'he's in the hospital' I'd immediately ask 'which one?' Instead of why/what for ? -- which would be my normal first question.
End of derail