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.