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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 various etymologies ascribed to the term Bachelor, "the true one, and the most flattering," says the Gradus ad Cantabrigiam, "seems to be bacca laurus. Those who either are, or expect to be, honored with the title of Bachelor of Arts, will hear with exultation, that they are then 'considered as the budding flowers of the University; as the small pillula, or bacca, of the laurel indicates the flowering of that tree, which is so generally used in the crowns of those who have deserved well, both of the military states, and of the republic of learning.'—Carter's History of Cambridge, [Eng.], 1753."

BACHELOR FELLOW. A Bachelor of Arts who is maintained on a fellowship.

BACHELOR SCHOLAR. At the University of Cambridge, Eng., a B.A. who remains in residence after taking his degree, for the purpose of reading for a fellowship or acting as private tutor. He is always noted for superiority in scholarship.

Bristed refers to the bachelor scholars in the annexed extract. "Along the wall you see two tables, which, though less carefully provided than the Fellows', are still served with tolerable decency and go through a regular second course instead of the 'sizings.' The occupants of the upper or inner table are men apparently from twenty-two to twenty-six years of age, and wear black gowns with two strings hanging loose in front. If this table has less state than the adjoining one of the Fellows, it has more mirth and brilliancy; many a good joke seems to be going the rounds. These are the Bachelors, most of them Scholars reading for Fellowships, and nearly all of them private tutors. Although Bachelors in Arts, they are considered, both as respects the College and the University, to be in statu pupillari until they become M.A.'s. They pay a small sum in fees nominally for tuition, and are liable to the authority of that mighty man, the Proctor."—Five Years in an Eng. Univ., Ed. 2d, p. 20.

BACHELORSHIP. The state of one who has taken his first degree in a university or college.—Webster.

BACK-LESSON. A lesson which has not been learned or recited; a lesson which has been omitted.

In a moment you may see the yard covered with hurrying groups, some just released from metaphysics or the blackboard, and some just arisen from their beds where they have indulged in the luxury of sleeping over—a luxury, however, which is sadly diminished by the anticipated necessity of making up back-lessons.—Harv. Reg., p. 202.

BALBUS. At Yale College, this term is applied to Arnold's Latin Prose Composition, from the fact of its so frequent occurrence in that work. If a student wishes to inform his fellow-student that he is engaged on Latin Prose Composition, he says he is studying Balbus. In the first example of this book, the first sentence reads, "I and Balbus lifted up our hands," and the name Balbus appears in almost every exercise.

BALL UP. At Middlebury College, to fail at recitation or examination.

BANDS. Linen ornaments, worn by professors and clergymen when officiating; also by judges, barristers, &c., in court. They form a distinguishing mark in the costume of the proctors of the English universities, and at Cambridge, the questionists, on admission to their degrees, are by the statutes obliged to appear in them.—Grad. ad Cantab.

BANGER. A club-like cane or stick; a bludgeon. This word is one of the Yale vocables.

The Freshman reluctantly turned the key,

Expecting a Sophomore gang to see,

Who, with faces masked and bangers stout, Had come resolved to smoke him out. Yale Lit. Mag., Vol. XX. p. 75.

BARBER. In the English universities, the college barber is often employed by the students to write out or translate the impositions incurred by them. Those who by this means get rid of their impositions are said to barberize them.

So bad was the hand which poor Jenkinson wrote, that the many impositions which he incurred would have kept him hard at work all day long; so he barberized them, that is, handed them over to the college barber, who had always some poor scholars in his pay. This practice of barberizing is not uncommon among a certain class of men.—Collegian's Guide, p. 155.

BARNEY. At Harvard College, about the year 1810, this word was used to designate a bad recitation. To barney was to recite badly.

BARNWELL. At Cambridge, Eng., a place of resort for characters of bad report.

One of the most "civilized" undertook to banter me on my non-appearance in the classic regions of Barnwell.—Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ., Ed. 2d, p. 31.

BARRING-OUT SPREE. At Princeton College, when the students find the North College clear of Tutors, which is about once a year, they bar up the entrance, get access to the bell, and ring it.

In the "Life of Edward Baines, late M.P. for the Borough of Leeds," is an account of a barring-out, as managed at the grammar school at Preston, England. It is related in Dickens's Household Words to this effect. "His master was pompous and ignorant, and smote his pupils liberally with cane and tongue. It is not surprising that the lads learnt as much from the spirit of their master as from his preceptions and that one of those juvenile rebellions, better known as old than at present as a 'barring-out,' was attempted. The doors of the school, the biographer narrates, were fastened with huge nails, and one of the younger lads was let out to obtain supplies of food for the garrison. The rebellion having lasted two or three days, the mayor, town-clerk, and officers were sent for to intimidate the offenders. Young Baines, on the part of the besieged, answered the magisterial summons to surrender, by declaring that they would never give in, unless assured of full pardon and a certain length of holidays. With much good sense, the mayor gave them till the evening to consider; and on his second visit the doors were found open, the garrison having fled to the woods of Penwortham. They regained their respective homes under the cover of night, and some humane interposition averted the punishment they had deserved."—Am. Ed. Vol. III. p. 415.

BATTEL. To stand indebted on the college books at Oxford for provisions and drink from the buttery.

Eat my commons with a good stomach, and battled with discretion. —Puritan, Malone's Suppl. 2, p. 543.

Many men "battel" at the rate of a guinea a week. Wealthier men, more expensive men, and more careless men, often "battelled" much higher.—De Quincey's Life and Manners, p. 274.

Cotgrave says, "To battle (as scholars do in Oxford) être debteur an collège pour ses vivres." He adds, "Mot usé seulement des jeunes écoliers de l'université d'Oxford."

2. To reside at the university; to keep terms.—Webster.

BATTEL. Derived from the old monkish word patella, or batella, a plate. At Oxford, "whatsoever is furnished for dinner and for supper, including malt liquor, but not wine, as well as the materials for breakfast, or for any casual refreshment to country visitors, excepting only groceries," is expressed by the word battels.—De Quincey.

I on the nail my Battels paid, The monster turn'd away dismay'd. The Student, Vol. I. p. 115, 1750.

BATTELER, BATTLER. A student at Oxford who stands indebted, in the college books, for provisions and drink at the buttery.—Webster.

Halliwell, in his Dict. Arch. and Prov. Words, says, "The term is used in contradistinction to gentleman commoner." In Gent. Mag., 1787, p. 1146, is the following:—"There was formerly at Oxford an order similar to the sizars of Cambridge, called battelers (batteling having the same signification as sizing). The sizar and batteler were as independent as any other members of the college, though of an inferior order, and were under no obligation to wait upon anybody."

2. One who keeps terms, or resides at the University.—Webster.

BATTELING. At Oxford, the act of taking provisions from the buttery. Batteling has the same signification as SIZING at the University of Cambridge.—Gent. Mag., 1787, p. 1146.

Batteling in a friend's name, implies eating and drinking at his expense. When a person's name is crossed in the buttery, i.e. when he is not allowed to take any articles thence, he usually comes into the hall and battels for buttery supplies in a friend's name, "for," says the Collegian's Guide, "every man can 'take out' an extra commons, and some colleges two, at each meal, for a visitor: and thus, under the name of a guest, though at your own table, you escape part of the punishment of being crossed."—p. 158.

2. Spending money.

The business of the latter was to call us of a morning, to distribute among us our battlings, or pocket money, &c.—Dicken's Household Words, Vol. I. p. 188.

BAUM. At Hamilton College, to fawn upon; to flatter; to court the favor of any one.

B.C.L. Abbreviated for Baccalaureus Civilis Legis, Bachelor in Civil Law. In the University of Oxford, a Bachelor in Civil Law must be an M.A. and a regent of three years' standing. The exercises necessary to the degree are disputations upon two distinct days before the Professors of the Faculty of Law.

In the University of Cambridge, the candidate for this degree must have resided nine terms (equal to three years), and been on the boards of some College for six years, have passed the "previous examination," attended the lectures of the Professor of Civil Law for three terms, and passed a series of examinations in the subject of them; that is to say in General Jurisprudence, as illustrated by Roman and English law. The names of those who pass creditably are arranged in three classes according to merit.—Lit. World, Vol. XII. p. 284.

This degree is not conferred in the United States.

B.D. An abbreviation for Baccalaureus Divinitatis, Bachelor in Divinity. In both the English Universities a B.D. must be an M.A. of seven years' standing, and at Oxford, a regent of the same length of time. The exercises necessary to the degree are at Cambridge one act after the fourth year, two opponencies, a clerum, and an English sermon. At Oxford, disputations are enjoined upon two distinct days before the Professors of the Faculty of Divinity, and a Latin sermon is preached before the Vice-Chancellor. The degree of Theologiæ Baccalaureus was conferred at Harvard College on Mr. Leverett, afterwards President of that institution, in 1692, and on Mr. William Brattle in the same year, the only instances, it is believed, in which this degree has been given in America.

BEADLE, BEDEL, BEDELL. An officer in a university, whose chief business is to walk with a mace, before the masters, in a public procession; or, as in America, before the president, trustees, faculty, and students of a college, in a procession, at public commencements.—Webster.

In the English universities there are two classes of Bedels, called the Esquire and the Yeoman Bedel.

Of this officer as connected with Yale College, President Woolsey speaks as follows:—"The beadle or his substitute, the vice-beadle (for the sheriff of the county came to be invested with the office), was the master of processions, and a sort of gentleman-usher to execute the commands of the President. He was a younger graduate settled at or near the College. There is on record a diploma of President Clap's, investing with this office a graduate of three years' standing, and conceding to him 'omnia jura privilegia et auctoritates ad Bedelli officium, secundum collegiorum aut universitatum leges et consuetudines usitatas; spectantia.' The office, as is well known, still exists in the English institutions of learning, whence it was transferred first to Harvard and thence to this institution."—Hist. Disc., Aug., 1850, p. 43.

In an account of a Commencement at Williams College, Sept. 8, 1795, the order in which the procession was formed was as follows: "First, the scholars of the academy; second, students of college; third, the sheriff of the county acting as Bedellus," &c.—Federal Orrery, Sept. 28, 1795.

The Beadle, by order, made the following declaration.—Clap's Hist. Yale Coll., 1766, p. 56.

It shall be the duty of the Faculty to appoint a College Beadle, who shall direct the procession on Commencement day, and preserve order during the exhibitions.—Laws Yale Coll., 1837, p. 43.

BED-MAKER. One whose occupation is to make beds, and, as in colleges and universities, to take care of the students' rooms. Used both in the United States and England.

T' other day I caught my bed-maker, a grave old matron, poring very seriously over a folio that lay open upon my table. I asked her what she was reading? "Lord bless you, master," says she, "who I reading? I never could read in my life, blessed be God; and yet I loves to look into a book too."—The Student, Vol. I. p. 55, 1750.

I asked a bed-maker where Mr. ——'s chambers were.—Gent. Mag., 1795, p. 118.

While the grim bed-maker provokes the dust, And soot-born atoms, which his tomes encrust. The College.—A sketch in verse, in Blackwood's Mag., May, 1849.

The bed-makers are the women who take care of the rooms: there is about one to each staircase, that is to say, to every eight rooms. For obvious reasons they are selected from such of the fair sex as have long passed the age at which they might have had any personal attractions. The first intimation which your bed-maker gives you is that she is bound to report you to the tutor if ever you stay out of your rooms all night.—Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ., Ed. 2d, p. 15.

BEER-COMMENT. In the German universities, the student's drinking code.

The beer-comment of Heidelberg, which gives the student's code of drinking, is about twice the length of our University book of statutes.—Lond. Quar. Rev., Am. Ed., Vol. LXXIII. p. 56.

BEMOSSED HEAD. In the German universities, a student during the sixth and last term, or semester, is called a Bemossed Head, "the highest state of honor to which man can attain."—Howitt.

See MOSS-COVERED HEAD.

BENE. Latin, well. A word sometimes attached to a written college exercise, by the instructor, as a mark of approbation.

When I look back upon my college life,

And think that I one starveling bene got. Harvardiana, Vol. III. p. 402.

BENE DISCESSIT. Latin; literally, he has departed honorably. This phrase is used in the English universities to signify that the student leaves his college to enter another by the express consent and approbation of the Master and Fellows.—Gradus ad Cantab.

Mr. Pope being about to remove from Trinity to Emmanuel, by Bene-Discessit, was desirous of taking my rooms.—Alma Mater, Vol. I. p. 167.

BENEFICIARY. One who receives anything as a gift, or is maintained by charity.—Blackstone.

In American colleges, students who are supported on established foundations are called beneficiaries. Those who receive maintenance from the American Education Society are especially designated in this manner.

No student who is a college beneficiary shall remain such any longer than he shall continue exemplary for sobriety, diligence, and orderly conduct.—Laws of Univ. at Cam., Mass., 1848, p. 19.

BEVER. From the Italian bevere, to drink. An intermediate refreshment between breakfast and dinner.—Morison.

At Harvard College, dinner was formerly the only meal which was regularly taken in the hall. Instead of breakfast and supper, the students were allowed to receive a bowl of milk or chocolate, with a piece of bread, from the buttery hatch, at morning and evening; this they could eat in the yard, or take to their rooms and eat there. At the appointed hour for bevers, there was a general rush for the buttery, and if the walking happened to be bad, or if it was winter, many ludicrous accidents usually occurred. One perhaps would slip, his bowl would fly this way and his bread that, while he, prostrate, afforded an excellent stumbling-block to those immediately behind him; these, falling in their turn, spattering with the milk themselves and all near them, holding perhaps their spoons aloft, the only thing saved from the destruction, would, after disentangling themselves from the mass of legs, arms, etc., return to the buttery, and order a new bowl, to be charged with the extras at the close of the term.

Similar in thought to this account are the remarks of Professor Sidney Willard concerning Harvard College in 1794, in his late work, entitled, "Memories of Youth and Manhood." "The students who boarded in commons were obliged to go to the kitchen-door with their bowls or pitchers for their suppers, when they received their modicum of milk or chocolate in their vessel, held in one hand, and their piece of bread in the other, and repaired to their rooms to take their solitary repast. There were suspicions at times that the milk was diluted by a mixture of a very common tasteless fluid, which led a sagacious Yankee student to put the matter to the test by asking the simple carrier-boy why his mother did not mix the milk with warm water instead of cold. 'She does,' replied the honest youth. This mode of obtaining evening commons did not prove in all cases the most economical on the part of the fed. It sometimes happened, that, from inadvertence or previous preparation for a visit elsewhere, some individuals had arrayed themselves in their dress-coats and breeches, and in their haste to be served, and by jostling in the crowd, got sadly sprinkled with milk or chocolate, either by accident or by the stealthy indulgence of the mischievous propensities of those with whom they came in contact; and oftentimes it was a scene of confusion that was not the most pleasant to look upon or be engaged in. At breakfast the students were furnished, in Commons Hall, with tea, coffee, or milk, and a small loaf of bread. The age of a beaker of beer with a certain allowance of bread had expired."—Vol. I. pp. 313, 314.

No scholar shall be absent above an hour at morning bever, half an hour at evening bever, &c.—Quincy's Hist. Harv. Univ., Vol. I. p. 517.

The butler is not bound to stay above half an hour at bevers in the buttery after the tolling of the bell.—Ibid., Vol. I. p. 584.

BEVER. To take a small repast between meals.—Wallis.

BIBLE CLERK. In the University of Oxford, the Bible clerks are required to attend the service of the chapel, and to deliver in a list of the absent undergraduates to the officer appointed to enforce the discipline of the institution. Their duties are different in different colleges.—Oxford Guide.

A Bible clerk has seldom too many friends in the University.—Blackwood's Mag., Vol. LX., Eng. ed., p. 312.

In the University of Cambridge, Eng., "a very ancient scholarship, so called because the student who was promoted to that office was enjoined to read the Bible at meal-times."—Gradus ad Cantab.

BIENNIAL EXAMINATION. At Yale College, in addition to the public examinations of the classes at the close of each term, on the studies of the term, private examinations are also held twice in the college course, at the close of the Sophomore and Senior years, on the studies of the two preceding years. The latter are called biennial.—Yale Coll. Cat.

"The Biennial," remarks the writer of the preface to the Songs of Yale, "is an examination occurring twice during the course—at the close of the Sophomore and of the Senior years—in all the studies pursued during the two years previous. It was established in 1850."—Ed. 1853, p. 4.

The system of examinations has been made more rigid, especially by the introduction of biennials.—Centennial Anniversary of the Linonian Soc., Yale Coll., 1853, p. 70.

Faculty of College got together one night,

To have a little congratulation,

For they'd put their heads together and hatched out a load,

And called it "Bien. Examination." Presentation Day Songs, June 14, 1854.

BIG-WIG. In the English universities, the higher dignitaries among the officers are often spoken of as the big-wigs.

Thus having anticipated the approbation of all, whether Freshman, Sophomore, Bachelor, or Big-Wig, our next care is the choice of a patron.—Pref. to Grad. ad Cantab.

BISHOP. At Cambridge, Eng., this beverage is compounded of port-wine mulled and burnt, with the addenda of roasted lemons and cloves.—Gradus ad Cantab.

We'll pass round the Bishop, the spice-breathing cup. Will. Sentinel's Poems.

BITCH. Among the students of the University of Cambridge, Eng., a common name for tea.

The reading man gives no swell parties, runs very little into debt, takes his cup of bitch at night, and goes quietly to bed. —Grad. ad Cantab., p. 131.

With the Queens-men it is not unusual to issue an "At home" Tea and Vespers, alias bitch and hymns.—Ibid., Dedication.

BITCH. At Cambridge, Eng., to take or drink a dish of tea.

I followed, and, having "bitched" (that is, taken a dish of tea) arranged my books and boxes.—Alma Mater, Vol. I. p. 30.

I dined, wined, or bitched with a Medallist or Senior Wrangler. —Ibid., Vol. II. p. 218.

A young man, who performs with great dexterity the honors of the tea-table, is, if complimented at all, said to be "an excellent bitch."—Gradus ad Cantab., p. 18.

BLACK BOOK. In the English universities, a gloomy volume containing a register of high crimes and misdemeanors.

At the University of Göttingen, the expulsion of students is recorded on a blackboard.—Gradus ad Cantab.

Sirrah, I'll have you put in the black book, rusticated, expelled.—Miller's Humors of Oxford, Act II. Sc. I.

All had reason to fear that their names were down in the proctor's black book.—Collegian's Guide, p. 277.

So irksome and borish did I ever find this early rising, spite of the health it promised, that I was constantly in the black book of the dean.—Alma Mater, Vol. I. p. 32.

BLACK-HOOD HOUSE. See SENATE.

BLACK RIDING. At the College of South Carolina, it has until within a few years been customary for the students, disguised and painted black, to ride across the college-yard at midnight, on horseback, with vociferations and the sound of horns. Black riding is recognized by the laws of the College as a very high offence, punishable with expulsion.

BLEACH. At Harvard College, he was formerly said to bleach who preferred to be spiritually rather than bodily present at morning prayers.

'T is sweet Commencement parts to reach,

But, oh! 'tis doubly sweet to bleach. Harvardiana, Vol. III. p. 123.

BLOOD. A hot spark; a man of spirit; a rake. A word long in use among collegians and by writers who described them.

With some rakes from Boston and a few College bloods, I got very drunk.—Monthly Anthology, Boston, 1804, Vol. I. p. 154.