The Rice University Neologisms Database

The elevator at Sid Rich College. This is a slang word used by the people at Sid Rich to refer to their college’s elevator. It has the same meaning as the word elevator, except that it seems to be a proper noun because it refers to a specific elevator. Hence, it is usually preceded by the definite article the, as in “The Vator, much like the famous slang “The Man.” There does not appear to be a clear reason as to why this word is used instead of “elevator”; it is probably just a group-identifier, used exclusively by Sid Rich students, which strictly speaking makes it jargon and not slang.