A college yard, lawn, or field. An excellent monograph on the use of this word was published in 1897 by Mr. Albert Matthews of Boston: see Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, vol. iii. pp. 431–7. The word appears (in writing) at Princeton, 1774, and does not seem to have been used elsewhere until about 1821. No earlier examples in print than those here given, 1833 and 1834, have yet been found, or are likely to be found. Finch, who was an Englishman, refers to Princeton.
1833. In front of the College is a fine campus ornamented with trees.—J. Finch, ‘Travels in the U.S. and Canada,’ p. 282.
1834. He acted on the present occasion precisely as he might have done in the college campus, with all the benefits of a fair field and a plentiful crowd of backers.—W. G. Simms, ‘Guy Rivers,’ i. 189 (3rd ed., N.Y., 1837).
1840. We are told that the Abolition battle must be fought at the North; that we must deal kindly here, to afford a campus for their chivalry at home.—Mr. Colquitt of Georgia, House of Representatives, Jan. 17: Cong. Globe, p. 144 (Appendix).
1843. One morning was very unexpectedly seen a surveyor running a line across the Campus, driving down stakes, &c. [in preparation for a new college].—B. R. Hall (‘Robert Carlton’), ‘The New Purchase,’ ii. 273.
1866. The Students retreated hastily to the College Campus, where they gave three cheers [after the riot of 1854].—Yale Lit. Mag., xxxi. 146 (Feb.).
1909. A fraternity chapter whose house was on the campus [at Middletown].—N.Y. Ev. Post, March 11.
