'Secret language' Prince George will have to learn at Eton including 'beaks' and 'wet bobs'

Prince George has followed in the footsteps of his father, Prince William, and uncle Prince Harry by being educated at Eton College - and this means he’ll also have to learn the school’s ‘secret language’.

The 13-year-old royal embarked on his first day at the prestigious institution on Tuesday (8 September), after being waved off by his dad and mum, Kate Middleton.

He posed in the boarding school’s historic uniform - a black tailcoat, waistcoat and pinstriped trousers, with a white collar - for official portraits, with fans gushing that he looked the spitting image of his father when he was the same age.

Among the traditions and strict rules he’ll have to abide by, as we say, George will also have to promptly to learn the ‘Eton Glossary’.

For those who are unfamiliar, Eton has loads of unique phrases and names for things that to be honest, sound made-up or like they’ve been pulled straight from Harry Potter.

Prince George has officially become a student of Eton College - and it looks like he has a lot to learn (ADRIAN DENNIS/Getty Images)

The glossary is an official online guide published by the college to explain its centuries-old traditional slang and terminology.

It alphabetically lists all of the bizarre words he will need to know and what they mean - and they might surprise you.

The official Eton College website explains: “Whilst at first these terms are difficult to grapple with, you quickly begin to use them without thinking in everyday life. Through time many historic ‘Eton’ words have fallen from use, but the most commonly used words remain, and are regularly uttered by pupils walking around the school.”

Teachers are called ‘Beaks,’ and there are competing views about the term’s origin - some claim it derives from the mortar board that teachers wore up until around the Twentieth Century, whereas others believe it comes from an old Dutch word for someone in authority.

‘Messing’ refers to a period in the afternoon when pupils are able to access a small kitchen in their boarding houses and make themselves something to eat, while ‘chambers’ is a period between lessons in the morning when the kids have a break.

The 'Eton Glossary' is an official dictionary of slang words used at the school (WPA Pool/Getty Images)

‘Div’ is apparently an unofficial term for a lesson, while ‘Dames’ and ‘House Masters’ are the members of staff who run the boarding houses.

And it actually gets stranger, as there are also groups called ‘dry bobs’ and wet bobs’.

Dry bobs are cricketers and any other non-rowing sportsmen, while wet bobs, you guessed it, are rowers.

As for ‘slack bobs,’ they are boys who don’t play sport and choose not to participate in cricket or rowing.

If a boy does a particularly bad piece of work, his Division Master may give him a ‘rip,’ which is where the work is signed by his House Master and Tutor.

‘Pop’ meanwhile, is the name given to the body of senior prefects, who are more properly known as The Eton Society.

The Eton College website outlines that the origin likely comes from the fact that boys used to meet above Mrs Hatton’s lollypop shop on the High Street, and ‘popina’ is Latin for a shop that sells food.

Fluent in Etonian yet? Me neither; looks like Prince George has a lot of learning to do…