commencement
(kəˈmɛnsmənt)
Also 3–5 com-.
[a. OF. co(m)mencement (= Pr. comensamens, Cat. comensament, It. cominciamento); app. of Romanic age, f. comenzar to commence: see -ment. Cf. also the shortened ME. comsemente.]
1. The action or process of commencing; beginning; time of beginning.
| c 1250 Serm. in O.E. Misc. 30 Þis was þe commencement of þo miracles of ure louerde. c 1450 Merlin xiv. 219 And be-gonne freshly vpon hem as it hadde be at the comencement. 1528 in Strype Eccl. Mem. I. App. xxiii. 58 If his Ho. contynued his good mynd towards the finishing and perfiting of that college, as his Ho. hath to the beginning and commencement. 1602 Shakes. Ham. iii. i. 185 The Origin and Commencement of this greefe. 1742 Johnson L.P., Sydenham Wks. IV. 493 He was with-held from the university by the commencement of the war. 1798 Mission. Mag. No. 22. 156 Eager to emulate and exceed our commencements. 1860 Tyndall Glac. ii. v. 251 At the commencement of winter. 1885 Law Times Rep. LII. 618/1 At the time of such commencement to build. |
2. The action of taking the full degree of Master or Doctor; esp. at Cambridge, Dublin, and the American universities, the great ceremony when these (also, in some cases other degrees, esp. in U.S., that of Bachelor) are conferred, at the end of the academical year.
| 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) VI. 259 By a statute of the universite of Oxenford..he schal not spende at his comencement passynge þre þowsand of grootes turonens. 1587 Harrison England ii. iii. (1877) i. 75 In Oxford this solemnitie is called an Act, but in Cambridge they vse the French word Commensement. 1593 Nashe Four Lett. Confut. 74 Shewe mee the Vniuersities hand and seale that thou art a Doctour sealed and deliuered in the presence of a whole Commensement. 1689 Lond. Gaz. No. 2496/2 (Cambridge) An extraordinary Commencement being held on this signal Occasion, for conferring Degrees on persons of Worth in all Faculties. 1714–23 Ayliffe Univ. of Oxf. II. iii. i. 131 There is a general Commencement once every Year in all the Faculties of Learning, which is called the Act at Oxford, and the Commencement at Cambridge. 1858 Masson Milton I. 163 Three days before the close of the academic year..there was held at Cambridge the great public ceremony of the ‘Commencement’. 1890 Academy 5 July 12/2 Dublin University..The recipients of honorary degrees at the commencement are, etc. |
b. transf. and fig.
| 1563–87 Foxe A. & M. (1596) 162/1 The princes of Almanie..assembled a Commensement, where they did consult and so conclude to elect another emperor. 1606 Holland Sueton. 182 (R.) Being honourably brought into the Forum, the day of his first plea and commencement. 1655 Fuller Hist. Camb. (1840) 8 Now it is become a great fair, and, as I may term it, one of the townsmen's ‘Commencements’, wherein they take their ‘degrees’ of wealth. |
3. attrib. and Comb. (sense 2), as commencement day, etc.
| 1606 Holland Sueton. 154 Also upon his commensement day, when he was to put on his virile gown. 1613 Purchas Pilgr. iv. xvi. 372 Doe assemble themselves at the Common Schoole or Commencement-house. 1661 K. W. Conf. Charac., Univ. Beadle (1860) 72 Fit for nothing else but to be made the fool at a commencement vacation. 1690 Lond. Gaz. No. 2566/4 Tuesday the first of July, is the Commencement-Day at Cambridge this year. 1858 O. W. Holmes Aut. Breakf.-t., Race of Life, ‘Commencement day’..reminds me of the start for the ‘Derby’. 1887 Cabot Mem. Emerson 64 Emerson's friend..was present at the Commencement Exercises when the class graduated in 1821. |