(or Twelve Apostles), subs. phr. (Cambridge University).—Formerly when the Poll, or ordinary B.A. degree list, was arranged in order of merit, the last twelve were nicknamed THE TWELVE APOSTLES; also THE CHOSEN TWELVE, and the last, ST. POLL or ST. PAUL—a punning allusion to 1 Cor. xv. 9, ‘For I am the least of the Apostles, that am not meet to be called an Apostle.’ The list is now arranged alphabetically and in classes. At Columbia College, D.C., the last twelve on the B.A. list actually receive the personal names of the Apostles.
1823. GROSE, Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue [EGAN], s.v. APOSTLES. (Cambridge.) Men who are plucked, refused their degree.
1795. Gentleman’s Magazine, Jan., 19. [The last twelve names on the Cambridge list are here called THE TWELVE APOSTLES.]
1823. Gradus ad Cantabrigiam. The APOSTLES are the clodhoppers of literature, who have at last scrambled through the Senate House without being plucked, and have obtained the title of B.A. by a miracle. The last twelve names on the list of Bachelor of Arts—those a degree lower than the οἱ πολλοί—are thus designated.
TO MANŒUVRE THE APOSTLES, verb. phr. (old).—To borrow of one to pay another; to rob Peter to pay Paul (GROSE).
