Phineas and his Terms: A Crux that Wasn’t

TAt the beginning of the fourth paragraph of Trollope's Phineas Finn, we are informed in some editions that 'Phineas eat his terms for three years, and was duly called to the Bar' and in others that 'Phineas sat his terms '.In a note to this passage, Sutherland 1 says 'Both make sense since dining in would be required of Phineas'.Both may indeed make sense, but only 'eat' is correct.As OED 1.2a explains it, with examples from Macaulay, Thackeray, Mayhew and Lever, to eat one's terms: a colloquial phrase for 'to be studying for the Bar'; students being required to have dined in the Hall of an Inn of Court three or more times during each of twelve terms before they can be 'called'.