A college president. Coll. slang.

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1828.  

        Our Prex says this:—You surely miss,
  When rating N. P. Willis,
Who loves all girls with chestnut curls,
  From Viola to Phillis.
The Yankee, p. 232 (Portland, Maine).    

2

1846.  That sanctum sanctorum, that skull and bones of college mysteries, the Prex’s room.—Yale Banger, Nov. 10: Hall, ‘College Words,’ p. 375 (1856).

3

1848.  Received the following “Impromptu to Prex. Day,” which does more honor to the author’s heart than to his head.—Yale Lit. Mag., xiii. 139 (Jan.).

4

1849.  What “excuses” we rendered unto Prex, and what he said thereupon.—Yale Lit. Mag., xv. 119 (Dec.).

5

1849.  The ‘old Prœx’ called out to young M——, (now filling an important diplomatic station abroad,) to bring him a chair.—Knick. Mag., xxxiv. 366 (Oct.).

6

1854.  Watch their countenances as that handsome Senior in his commencement suit, and with the self-satisfied, pompous air, which becomes one who has successfully, not to say, brilliantly battled all the difficulties of four years at college—receives his sheepskin from the dispensing hand of our worthy Prex.—Yale Lit. Mag., xix. 355 (Aug.).

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1855.  

        When first I saw a sheepskin,
  In Prex’s hand I spied it,
I’d given my hat and boots, I would,
  If I could have been beside it,
But now that last Biennial’s past,
  I “skinned” and “fizzled” through,
And so in spite of scrapes and flunks,
  I’ll have a sheepskin too.
Charles E. Trumbull (Yale), ‘Song of the Sheepskin’ (Bartlett).    

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1857.  After examination I went to the old Prex, and was admitted. Prex, by the way, is the same as President.—‘The Dartmouth,’ iv. 117: Hall, ‘College Words,’ p. 375 (1856).

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1862.  

        Prex Backus was a jovial Prex,
The roughest, kindest of his sex;
His lips let fly many a joke,
And jests he woke that others spoke.
A Bacchanal Ballad, ‘A Memorial of the Semi-centennial Celebration of the Founding of Hamilton College,’ p. 154. (N.E.D.)    

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