The Rice University Neologisms Database

a prospective student interesting in attending a certain college. Prospies are generally reserved to students who visit the campus in order to see and experience college life. Prospy is a clipping of ‘prospective’ that describes students show a possible chance or ambition in attending a university such as Rice. Prospy may be localized to Rice University student lingo. Prospy is a simple, short term for describing interested students and future owls of Rice University. “Prospective student” presents a mouthful to a typical college student. College students like to use terse, quick words in order to articulate their ideas. Students feel that “Prospective student” is a polysyllabic, long term that can easily be shortened to ‘prospy.’ In saying ‘prospy,’ the speaker is able to communicate to other students in precise, effective manner. The affixation of –y can be used to signify a noun, or it can exhibit diminutive properties in words like kitty and names like Billy and Kenny. This –y suffix can evoke a feeling of childish sentiment such that people who use the term prospy may describe the prospective students as if they were children. Children are usually describes with –y endings from kiddies to babies. In ending the clipped version of prospective with the high front vowel sound ‘i’ as in heed, the speaker appeared to downsize the prospective students and future owls as immature children. The –y suffix may also have been a sentimental, affectionate way of referring to younger students. Prospy reflects an ability for students to describe people in brief, simpler terms instead of utilizing a complex, convoluted string of words to describe a relatively simple concept of students interested in attending or visiting a college of university, more specifically, Rice University.