(Medieval Latin: baccalarius, cowherd, or husbandman)
(1) A young knight following the banner of another.
(2) An apprentice of a guild, also a religious novice.
(3) A holder of the lowest degree granted by a university (Bachelor of Arts); first applied in 1231 to students who, while studying for the Master's degree, were granted the privilege of teaching younger students after passing an examination called "determination" which proved their fitness to enter upon the second stage of the mastership. At Paris and on the Continent, in the 13th century, students "determined" after one or two years, but at Oxford and Cambridge the course was four years. The arts curriculum consisting in medieval times of grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic, has undergone many changes resulting from the humanistic movement, the development of scientific knowledge, and the institution of the elective system.
(4) An unmarried man.