varsity

Mid 17th century. Clipping of univarsity, reflecting an archaic pronunciation of university.^[1]

varsity (countable and uncountable, plural varsities)

(often attributive) university
- 1853, Cuthbert Bede [pseudonym; Edward Bradley], “Mr. Verdant Green’s Morning Reflections are not so pleasant as his Evening Diversions”, in The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green, an Oxford Freshman, London: Nathaniel Cooke, […], →OCLC, page 71:
  […] and then to lyrically proclaim that, not only was it a way they had in the Varsity to drive dull care away, but that the same practice was also pursued in the army and navy for the attainment of a similar end.
(sports, US) The principal sports team representing an institution (usually a high school, college, or university.)
- 1903, Ralph Henry Barbour, C. M. Relyea, Weatherby's Inning: A Story of College Life and Baseball‎, New York: D. Appleton and Company:
  There were sixteen of them in all, for the most part upper classmen who had failed to make the varsity the year before, with a sprinkling of sophomores and two freshmen.
- 2019 November 13, Luke Winkie, “Why Colleges Are Betting Big on Video Games”, in The Atlantic‎:
  A small Pennsylvania university has only one varsity program: e-sports. Is this the future of college athletics?

Used attributively in the UK to describe a sports team representing a university or college, or a match involving such a team (in normal usage only applying to one of the older universities, and considered somewhat dated even then).
Used attributively in the U.S. and Canada to describe a sports team made up of older high school or college students (generally the 3rd and 4th years of a 4-year program), as contrasted with the junior varsity team made up of 1st- and 2nd-year students.
Used synonymously to "university" in South Africa.

university — see university

sports team representing an institution

English