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