- How's PBHell going for your group?
PBHell
noun; blending; acronym
A state of suffering that all sophomore bioengineering students must go through their fall semester. It entails: working throughout the night, countless meetings in Fondren, and projects that seem to have no end. The amount of work leaves its students in a zombie state. The word is a blend of PBL, which is an acronym for Problem Based Learning, and hell.
Etymology : Old English hel, helle, "nether world, abode of the dead, infernal regions," from Proto-Germanic *haljo "the underworld" (cf. Old Frisian helle, Dutch hel, Old Norse hel, German Hölle, Gothic halja "hell") "the underworld," literally "concealed place" (cf. Old Norse hellir "cave, cavern"). Hell was then used to describe the PBL class as a concealed place where its students could not escape the torment. PBL is an acronym which stands for problem based learning which is the basis of the class. The acronym and hell were then combined to form a blend where the "l" sound in hell replaced the "L" in PBL. [etymonline]
Source : The word was first heard by my PBL group member's roommate.
Last modified: 25 November 2013