A Collection of College Words and Customs, page 19 by Benjamin Homer Hall
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em>baculus or staff with which knights were usually invested, or from bas chevalier, an inferior kind of knight; the literary classes, with more plausibility, perhaps, trace its origin to the custom which prevailed universally among the Greeks and Romans, and which was followed even in Italy till the thirteenth century, of crowning distinguished individuals with laurel; hence the recipient of this honor was style Baccalaureus, quasi baccis laureis donatus.--Brande's Dictionary.
The subjoined passage, although it may not place the subject in any clearer light, will show the difference of opinion which exists in reference to the derivation of this work. Speaking of the exercises of Commencement at Cambridge Mass., in the early days of Harvard College, the writer says "But the main exercises were disputations upon questions wherein the respondents first made their Theses: For according to Vossius, the very essence of the Baccalaureat seems to lye in the thing: Baccalaureus being but a name corrupted of Batualius, which Batualius (as well as the French Bataile [Bataille]) comes à Batuendo, a business that carries beating in it: So that, Batualii fuerunt vocati, quia jam quasi batuissent cum adversario, ac manus conseruissent; hoc est, publice disputassent, atque ita peritiæ suæ specimen dedissent."--Mather's Magnalia, B. IV. p. 128.
The Seniors will be examined for the Baccalaureate, four weeks before Commencement, by a committee, in connection with the Faculty.--Cal. Wesleyan Univ., 1849, p. 22.
BACHELOR. A person who has taken the first degree in the liberal arts and sciences, at a college or university. This degree, or honor, is called the Baccalaureate. This title is given also to such as take the first degree in divinity, law, or physic, in certain European universities. The word appears in various forms in different languages. The following are taken from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.