Title: Foco

General Information:

• Type: Verbal Lore
• Language: English
• Country of Origin: United States
• Informant: ES ’23
• Date Collected: 11/1/2021
• Location Collected: Baker/Berry Library at Dartmouth College

Informant Data:

• ES ’23 is a twenty-year-old female from Orange County, California. She is a member of the Class of 2023 at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire where she studies Economics and Government. On campus, she is involved in the Women in Student Businesses organization, is a teaching assistant for an engineering course, and is a member of a sorority. ES is also vegan, but this does not restrict her from dining at the various dining centers around campus–she is able to find options at all of them that fit her dietary needs. She plans on going into consulting after graduation.

Contextual Data:

• Cultural Context: Students at Dartmouth generally use the dining halls quite a lot. Though there are options for eating out and getting takeout food in town, they are somewhat limited given the relatively remote location of the campus. Most students thus opt to stay on a meal plan for all four years that they go to Dartmouth for the sake of convenience and also cost effectiveness. “Foco” is the largest dining hall on campus and one of the more frequently used by students of various backgrounds, involvements, and class years. The atmosphere at Foco varies depending on the meal time. While breakfast is somewhat quiet given many students do not eat breakfast due to sleeping in too late, at peak hours, Foco is typically quite lively and crowded. Peak hours for lunch are between noon and 1pm, while peak hours for dinner are between 6 and 7pm. During these times, it can be difficult for a student to get a table. There are various food options, ranging in terms of health and nutritional value. Typically, one can always find something at Foco that appeals to them and fits with their diet and nutritional needs.
• Social Context: “Foco” is typically used exclusively by students rather than the general Dartmouth population, as it is generally students alone who dine at the Class of 1953 Commons. This slang word is used around campus at any time of the day when one would typically be up and looking for something to eat. Foco serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner, so this piece of lore applies to all three meals and is used throughout the day. It would generally be used under the following circumstances: a student is going there for a meal, a student is asking someone else to go there for a meal with them, a sports team is all going there to eat after practice, someone is going to study there (sometimes people go to both eat and study), or a club is meeting there. It is often the case that girls eat at Foco more early on in their college career at Dartmouth, rarely going there by the time they are seniors. Guys, however eat at Foco for all four years they are at Dartmouth. The reasons for this are unknown.

Item:

• “Foco” stands for “food court.” It is colloquial slang that refers to the Class of 1953 Commons, a dining hall at Dartmouth College. For example, a student will ask another student, “Want to get dinner at Foco?”.

Associated File:

• Transcript: “Foco stands for food court, which is kinda weird because there’s an actual name for it too, the class of fifty-something commons. I think I first heard the term on trips when my trip leaders were talking about the different places to eat on campus. They said it in passing though, so I didn’t realize that Foco wasn’t the actual name of the dining center until a friend told me when I got back to campus and went there to eat for the first time. Almost everyone on campus uses this slang term even if they don’t eat there–Foco just comes up. It’s mostly underclassmen and guys that eat there though; a lot of girls stop eating there after freshman year. It’s a social thing, can’t explain it. But I still eat there sometimes when I’m running out of DBA. It’s also a good place to go if you want to run into people.”

Informant’s Comments:

• I would recommend Foco, though the food varies a lot in quality day to day.

Collector’s Comments:

• I think it is interesting how ES mentioned Foco is not just a place to eat but also a place to socialize and a place of community gathering where you run into various people you know. Such must add to its appeal for some people and deter others who may want to grab a meal without having to socialize. Furthermore, I think it is important to note that Foco is one of the more frequently used slang words on Dartmouth Campus. It makes sense that an acronym would arise for a dining center so frequently used by students, especially considering its actual name is quite lengthy and would be difficult to say throughout the day in the casual contexts in which it is typically referred to. Finally, I wanted to clarify the transcript’s reference to “trips”–these are the camping trips all first-year Dartmouth students participate in before matriculation.

Collector’s Name: Annabel Revers

Tags/Keywords: Verbal Folklore, Students, English, Dartmouth, Slang, Dining Halls, Food, Acronyms