2. Bachelors—

Bachelor, as the title of a graduate, is of later origin than doctor or master. Originally it had nothing to do with Universities, but is said to be derived from the Low Latin baccalarias, a cow-herd or farm servant. However this may be, the term came to mean (1) generically, a young man (whence the popular meaning of the word), (2) specifically, an apprentice or probationer (e.g. a monk or a knight in the probationary stage—knight bachelor) (3) a probationer in the profession of a university teacher, i.e. a student who is not yet a doctor or master, but who has received a limited and provisional license to teach by way of apprenticeship, preliminary to his complete reception into the teaching profession. The practice of granting such licenses to bachelors seems to have begun in Paris in the thirteenth century, and to have spread thence to the English Universities. It is to be regretted that so many students forget that a bachelor's degree is merely a preliminary step towards complete academic status, and act as if it were the genuine crown and garland of the race that is set before them.