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