bachelier

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French bacheler, bachelier, from Medieval Latin baccalaureus, a variant of baccalārius influenced by a folk etymology from bacca (“berry”), laurea (“laurel”), i.e. “crowned with berried laurels”, in reference to the fact that graduate students were crowned with those in the Middle Ages. See baccalārius for other senses.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ba.ʃə.lje/

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Noun

bachelier m (plural bacheliers, feminine bachelière)

1. (France) graduate of the baccalauréat
   • Agrégé de philosophie, rebuté par la monotonie d'une carrière qui consiste à préparer chaque année un certain contingent de futurs bacheliers, Claude Lévi-Strauss s'orienta rapidement vers la recherche ethnographique.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

2. (Belgium, Canada) person holding a bachelor's degree
3. (Belgium) bachelor's degree

   Synonym: licence

Descendants

• → Catalan: batxiller
• → Italian: baccelliere
• → Spanish: bachiller
• → Turkish: başölye

Further reading

• “bachelier”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012