different between varsity vs intercollegiate

English

Etymology

Mid 17th century. Clipping of university (“i.e., univarsity”), reflecting an archaic pronunciation.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?v??.s?.ti/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?v??.s?.ti/

Noun

varsity (countable and uncountable, plural varsities)

1. (often attributive) university
2. (sports, US) The principal sports team representing an institution (usually a high school, college, or university.)

Usage notes

• Used attributively in the UK to describe a sports team representing a university or college, or a match involving such a team (in normal usage only applying to one of the older universities, and considered somewhat dated even then).
• Used attributively in the U.S. and Canada to describe a sports team made up of older high school or college students (generally the 3rd and 4th years of a 4-year program), as contrasted with the junior varsity team made up of 1st- and 2nd-year students.

Derived terms

• intervarsity
• junior varsity
• varsity letter

Translations

References

English

Etymology

inter- +? collegiate

Adjective

intercollegiate (not comparable)

1. Between colleges.
   • 1881, John Venn, Symbolic Logic, London: Macmillan & Co., Preface,^[1]

     The substance of most of these chapters has been given in my college lectures, our present intercollegiate scheme of lecturing (now in operation for about twelve years) offering great facilities for the prosecution of any special studies which happen to suit the taste and capacity of some particular lecturer and a selection of the students.

   • 1920, F. Scott Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise, Book One, Chapter 4,^[2]

     A certain Phyllis Styles, an intercollegiate prom-trotter, had failed to get her yearly invitation to the Harvard-Princeton game.

   • 1961, V. S. Naipaul, A House for Mr Biswas, Vintage International, 2001, Part Two, Chapter 4,

     He was given no food. For he had not won an exhibition, Vidiadhar who had brought home clean question papers with ticks beside the questions he had done and a neat list of correct answers to the arithmetic sums, who had begun to learn Latin and French, who had gone to the intercollegiate football match and uttered partisan cries.