academic weapon

English

Etymology

It is unclear who coined the term, but it was popularized in a TikTok video posted September 13, 2022 by Pennsylvania State University student Bradley Kraut: "Absolute academic weapon. Academic weapon." The video showed Kraut in the front row of a university lecture hall with the caption "ACADEMIC WEAPON. FIRST ROW 700 PERSON LECTURE 🤝". This started a TikTok trend of users calling themselves "academic weapons".

Noun

academic weapon (plural academic weapons)

1. (Internet slang, humorous) An exceptionally productive and diligent student.

   I became a true academic weapon by drinking lots of coffee, one of the few socially acceptable study drugs.

   • 2022 October 19, Gregory Sharp, “Glasgow Uni exams happening in the same venue as COP26”, in The Tab‎^[3], archived from the original on 2023-02-04:

     In the space of only a year, the SEC has gone from becoming one of the most high-profile areas, featuring major political faces such as Joe Biden, Nicola Sturgeon, Barack Obama and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, to a place which will feature university students being major academic weapons.

   • 2023 February 9, Alice Mainwood, “Lecture Block room 3, I secretly love you”, in Varsity‎^[4], Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Varsity Publications Ltd, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-03-18:

     So, this term I have made a solemn vow to do better. While I wouldn't like to publicly brand myself as flaky, I'd say my ability to stick to any sort of resolution is among my greatest weaknesses. And yet, as of the end of Week Three, I can proudly call myself an unparalleled, unstoppable lecture-devotee/academic-weapon/child-genius (or rather, I attend a suitable number of lectures and complain about doing so frequently).

   • 2023 March 13, Cade Fisher, “How to do spring break the right way”, in The Spectator‎^[5], archived from the original on 2023-03-27:

     Especially those who travel for spring break, travel in groups and generally watch out for shady stuff. Spring breakers are often targets of theft and violence because they turn their brains off from being academic weapons. Please still be mindful of where you are and what you are doing.

   • 2023 May 5, Lucyanna F. Glenn, J.J. Moore, “How to: Spend Your BoardPlus Before Finals Ends”, in The Harvard Crimson‎^[6], Cambridge, M.A.: Harvard Crimson, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-06-03:

     Lehman Hall turns you into the academic weapon that you were always meant to be!

   • 2023 May 21, Lucas Salm-Rojo, “Student Voices: Better bike parking could remove roadblocks for student cyclists”, in The Seattle Times‎^[7], Seattle, W.A: The Seattle Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-06-14:

     My bike ride to school every morning puts me in the correct mindset to become an academic weapon, and every other student deserves to come to school with that mindset as well.

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see academic,‎ weapon.
   • 1988, Madsen Pirie, Micropolitics, Aldershot, Hampshire: Wildwood House, →ISBN, page 10:

     The academic community either dismisses the work as absurdly out-of-date (always an excellent defence against new ideas), or resorts to the more traditional and more effective academic weapon of silence.

Further reading

• “academic weapon”, in Urban Dictionary, launched 1999.