A Collection of College Words and Customs. Benjamin Homer Hall
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,