The word dux is from Latin where it means ‘leader’, and it came into English with this meaning, although with a very specific use of the meaning. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) defines it as ‘the head pupil in a class or division in a school’. For its evidence, OED gives:
1808 Scott Autobiog. in Lockhart Life i, Our class contained some very excellent scholars. The first Dux was James Buchan, who retained his honored place almost without a day’s interval all the while we were at the high school. 1870 Ramsay Remin. (ed. 18) p. xxix, ‘I’m second dux’..means in Scottish academical language second from the top of the class. 1876 Grant Burgh Sch. Scotl. II. v. 213 note, A gold medal [is given] to the dux of the [Aberdeen grammar] school.
The OED adds ‘chiefly in Scotland’. Most Australians will immediately say—and also in Australia!
What is going on here? The entry for dux in the OED is unchanged since the first edition, and was prepared between 1893 and 1897. Is it possible that dux was first used in Scotland, and then spread out to other varieties of British English, and therefore to Australian English, and that this will become clear when the OED entry is revised? The American Random House Dictionary marks as ‘British’ the sense ‘the pupil who is academically first in a class or school’, but the most recent British Oxford Dictionary, the Oxford Dictionary of English (2nd edition, 2003) gives: ‘(chiefly Scottish) the top pupil in a school or class.’ The New Oxford American Dictionary gives: ‘a Saxon chief or leader.’ The Canadian Oxford Dictionary does not include dux at all. Thus, the overseas evidence continues to suggest that dux in the star pupil sense is primarily Scottish, when we all know that it is also Australian.
The other place where we know the word is widely used for the top pupil in a school is New Zealand. The Australian evidence begins with the Melbourne newspaper the Argus in 1859, and thereafter is widely used:
The result of the National Grammar School examination. ... Dux of the school (gold medal)—Wm. Kernot. 1859 Argus 23 December
The distribution of prizes amongst the children of the High School took place yesterday––T.J. Connolly won the prize as dux of the school amongst the boys. 1873 Argus 24 December
We must assume that the word and its meaning were brought to Australia and New Zealand by Scottish migrants in the nineteenth century. Its presence here is interesting evidence of the way the Australian vocabulary has been affected by patterns of migration from Britain.
