Akademik

n.

1. A second-year high school student who must repeat some or all of his or her first-year classes. 2. Freshmen and sophomores as a group. [Blend of freshman and sophomore]

A new mentoring program at Lakeside High School hopes to snag at-risk freshmen before they slip through the cracks.

Last school year, 17 percent of Georgia's ninth-grade high school students did not earn enough credits for promotion to the 10th grade, according to figures from the Columbia County school system. School officials refer to those students as "freshmores."

Currently, about 50 students at Lakeside High qualify as freshmores, said the school's graduation coach, Dorcas Powell.

—Donnie Fetter, "Extra help for 'freshmores'," The Augusta Chronicle, August 27, 2006

Freshmen aren't allowed at the Christmas formal and seniors can't attend the "freshmore" dance for underclassmen.

—Bonnie Adams, "Pittston's prom policy a party pooper?," The Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, May 16, 2006

"I've been going along with it," said Smith's friend Chris York, a self-described "freshmore" at Patrick Henry. (He takes freshman and sophomore classes.)

—Betty Hayden Snider, "Colorado hits home for teens," Roanoke Times & World News, April 25, 1999

There also seems to be a movement afoot to use the word freshmore as a gender-neutral replacement for freshman (with freshperson being a cringingly politically correct alternative). This sense of freshmore dates to 1990:

The University of Michigan is searching for a term to replace "freshman" in describing the first year of a woman's college experience.

Mary Jo Frank, editor of the faculty and staff newspaper University Record, asked readers for their ideas.

Of the 30 suggestions submitted, "freshmore" was the most common.

—"University Seeks Gender-Free Name for Students," The Associated Press, June 7, 1990