Title: BEMA

General Information:

         Verbal Lore: Slang

         Language: English

         Country of Origin: United States

         Informant: NC ’23

         Date Collected: 11/07/21

         Location Collected: Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth

Informant Data: 

NC ’23 is a 20-year-old male from Chicago, Illinois. He is a member of the Dartmouth Class of 2023, and he is studying Engineering and History. Outside of the classroom, NC ’23 is involved with the Triathlon team, Hillel, DOC, Ledyard, and Alpha Chi Alpha.

Contextual Data:

• Social Context: NC ’23 was studying in Thayer when he shared this piece of folklore with me. He first learned the term as a first-year student while participating in the Twilight Ceremony. The Twilight Ceremony is where members of the newest incoming class at Dartmouth – in this case, the Class of 2023 – are passed candles from the graduating class and participate in a procession. At the ceremony, upperclassmen and faculty used the term “BEMA” to describe the location they were walking to. The entire Dartmouth Class of 2023 was present, though they were not partaking in the performance. In addition, upperclassmen and faculty were present to help with the ceremony, and they were participating in the use of this verbal slang. After the ceremony, most of the Class of 2023 students learned about this piece of folklore and likely participated in future use of the term. While this specific performance was generated by the Twilight Ceremony, this piece of verbal slang is performed regularly and by all students at Dartmouth when referencing this geographical location.
• Cultural Context: Here, the relevant cultural context is that the informant is a student at Dartmouth College. This piece of folklore is known to and used by all Dartmouth students and is a type of verbal slang. It is commonly used in extracurricular settings and when large gatherings take place outdoors at this location. BEMA typically has a positive connotation, as it refers to a location where friends or people with common interests may gather to meet.

Item: 

BEMA: An acronym short for “Big Empty Meeting Area”. BEMA refers to a specific geographical location at Dartmouth. It is a large field that is a common gathering area, and it is located just past the Fayerweather dorm cluster. For example, used in a sentence: “Our club meets at BEMA every week.”

Associated File: 

“One phrase I picked up freshman year was ‘BEMA’. It’s short for ‘Big Empty Meeting Area’, and is that large grass field by the [Fayerweather dorms]. I first learned this word during the candle ceremony my freshman year. I was with my friends, and we were confused where everyone was walking to, and someone told us that we were walking to BEMA, which I soon realized was just a large grassy field where people commonly meet – hence the acronym. All of Dartmouth uses this term, but being involved with a lot of the ‘outdoorsy’ clubs here, I probably use it more than others because my clubs will meet at BEMA a lot of the time. This slang came to be probably because people didn’t have a name for the place they were meeting at, and so they came up with ‘Big Empty Meeting Area’ and shortened it to ‘BEMA’ because it’s easier to say. Used in a phrase: ‘My friends and I are going to hammock at BEMA.'”

Informant’s Comments: 

When it’s not too cold out and the weather is nice, I’d really recommend going to BEMA, if even just to get a breath of fresh air. You can go see the Robert Frost statue too, if you haven’t seen it before.

Collector’s Comments: 

BEMA is a piece of Dartmouth verbal slang that most, if not all, Dartmouth students should know and at one point have used. Less commonly known, however, is the fact that it is an acronym short for “Big Empty Meeting Area”. Personally, I learned that while collecting this piece of slang and previously had not known why the location was called BEMA.

Collector’s Name: Nathan Zhang

Tags / Keywords: FA21, FA21-Grp-03, Dartmouth, Verbal Lore, Slang, Students, Dartmouth Clubs, Meeting Area