Melons (French)
. Children sent to school for the first time; so called because they come from a “hot-bed,” and are as delicate as exotics. At St. Cyr, the new-comers are called in schoolslang “Les melons,” and the old stagers “Les anciens.”
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Entry taken from
Dictionary of Phrase and Fable,
edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.