- This is a clipping of the title lab assistant. It is slang used by the Rice population for a person that runs lab and serves the purpose of shortening the original title. However, the suffix -ie was added to give a sense of informality because labbies are undergraduate or graduate student, as opposed to professors with whom you would use a more formal title.
labbie(1)
noun; clipping
a person in charge or running a lab for students, a lab assitant
Etymology : A clipping of lab assistant. Lab is a shortening of laboratry from Medieval Latin laboratorium meaning "a place for labor or work" and assistant which is from assist, from Middle French assister meaning "to stand by, help, assist".
Source : "Where are my labbies for the day?" Lab manager trying to find the lab assistants. (09/11/08)
Last modified: 5 December 2008