A Collection of College Words and Customs | Page 8

Deductions from the average book. MS. Poem, W.F.
Allen, 1848.

B.
B.A. An abbreviation of Baccalaureus Artium, Bachelor of Arts. The first degree taken
by a student at a college or university. Sometimes written A.B., which is in accordance
with the proper Latin arrangement. In American colleges this degree is conferred in
course on each member of the Senior Class in good standing. In the English universities,
it is given to the candidate who has been resident at least half of each of ten terms, i.e.
during a certain portion of a period extending over three and a third years, and who has
passed the University examinations.
The method of conferring the degree of B.A. at Trinity College, Hartford, is peculiar. The

President takes the hands of each candidate in his own as he confers the degree. He also
passes to the candidate a book containing the College Statutes, which the candidate holds
in his right hand during the performance of a part of the ceremony.
The initials of English academical titles always correspond to the English, not to the
Latin of the titles, B.A., M.A., D.D., D.C.L., &c.--Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ.,
Ed. 2d, p. 13.
See BACHELOR.
BACCALAUREATE. The degree of Bachelor of Arts; the first or lowest degree. In
American colleges, this degree is conferred in course on each member of the Senior Class
in good standing. In Oxford and Cambridge it is attainable in two different ways;--1. By
examination, to which those students alone are admissible who have pursued the
prescribed course of study for the space of three years. 2. By extraordinary diploma,
granted to individuals wholly unconnected with the University. The former class are
styled Baccalaurei Formati, the latter Baccalaurei Currentes. In France the degree of
Baccalaureat (Baccalaureus Literarum) is conferred indiscriminately upon such natives or
foreigners and after a strict examination in the classics, mathematics, and philosophy, are
declared to be qualified. In the German universities, the title "Doctor Philosophiæ" has
long been substituted for Baccalaureus Artium or Literarum. In the Middle Ages, the
term Baccalaureus was applied to an inferior order of knights, who came into the field
unattended by vassals; from them it was transferred to the lowest class of ecclesiastics;
and thence again, by Pope Gregory the Ninth to the universities. In reference to the
derivation of this word, the military classes maintain that it is either derived from the
baculus or staff with which knights were usually invested, or from bas chevalier, an
inferior kind of knight; the literary classes, with more plausibility, perhaps, trace its
origin to the custom which prevailed universally among the Greeks and Romans, and
which was followed even in Italy till the thirteenth century, of crowning distinguished
individuals with laurel; hence the recipient of this honor was style Baccalaureus, quasi
baccis laureis donatus.--Brande's Dictionary.
The subjoined passage, although it may not place the subject in any clearer light, will
show the difference of opinion which exists in reference to the derivation of this work.
Speaking of the exercises of Commencement at Cambridge Mass., in the early days of
Harvard College, the writer says "But the main exercises were disputations upon
questions wherein the respondents first made their Theses: For according to Vossius, the
very essence of the Baccalaureat seems to lye in the thing: Baccalaureus being but a
name corrupted of Batualius, which Batualius (as well as the French Bataile [Bataille])
comes à Batuendo, a business that carries beating in it: So that, Batualii fuerunt vocati,
quia jam quasi batuissent cum adversario, ac manus conseruissent; hoc est, publice
disputassent, atque ita peritiæ suæ specimen dedissent."--Mather's Magnalia, B. IV. p.
128.
The Seniors will be examined for the Baccalaureate, four weeks before Commencement,
by a committee, in connection with the Faculty.--Cal. Wesleyan Univ., 1849, p. 22.

BACHELOR. A person who has taken the first degree in the liberal arts and sciences, at a
college or university. This degree, or honor, is called the Baccalaureate. This title is
given also to such as take the first degree in divinity, law, or physic, in certain European
universities. The word appears in various forms in different languages. The following are
taken from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary. "French, bachelier; Spanish, bachiller, a
bachelor of arts and a babbler; Portuguese, bacharel, id., and bacello, a shoot or twig of
the vine; Italian, baccelliere, a bachelor of arts; bacchio, a staff; bachetta, a rod; Latin,
bacillus, a stick, that is, a shoot; French, bachelette, a damsel, or young woman; Scotch,
baich, a child; Welsh, bacgen, a boy, a child; bacgenes, a young girl, from bac, small.
This word has its origin in the name of a child, or young person of either sex, whence the
sense of babbling in the Spanish. Or both senses are rather from shooting, protruding."
Of the