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Matriculate

Posted: Mon Jul 08, 2013 10:40 pm
by Dr. Goodword

• matriculate •

Pronunciation: mê-tri-kyê-layt • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Verb

Meaning: 1. To formally admit or be admitted as a student at a college or university. 2. To admit or be admitted to any society, organization, or the like.

Notes: Matriculate implies nothing about graduation or how well someone fares once admitted; it refers only to success in getting into a college or university. This is obviously a Latin borrowing, so it comes with all the lexical accessories of Latin words. The process of matriculating is called matriculation. A person who matriculates is a matriculant, and we have two adjectives meaning "pertaining to matriculation", matricular and matriculatory.

In Play: In the sense of "to be admitted", as opposed to "to admit", today's verb is usually intransitive, requiring a preposition: "In 1997 Les Cheatham matriculated at a well-known university, but in his first year he was caught looking into the soul of the woman sitting next to him on an existentialism exam, and was expelled." We are not restricted to matriculating at a college or university: "Bud Light has long since matriculated into the company of regulars at Duffy's Tavern."

Word History: Today's Good Word is based on the past participle, matriculatus, of Medieval Latin matriculare "to enroll". Matriculare came from matricula "list, register, roll", diminutive of matrix (the Latin spelling of matric-s). This word means "source, womb", because it is based on the Latin word mater "mother". We see it elsewhere in the borrowed vocabulary of English: maternity, matrimony, material, and matron are examples. Mater comes from the same source as English mother, German mutter, French mère, and Spanish madre. Those who are successful after they matriculate, and graduate, can refer to the matricular university as their alma mater "nourishing mother". (We owe a debt of gratitude to Lynn Maher, who managed to matriculate today's Good Word into our published series.)

Re: Matriculate

Posted: Tue Jul 09, 2013 7:43 am
by Pepshort
Is this fascinating word somehow related to maitre d' -- the head, or captain of ...?

Re: Matriculate

Posted: Tue Jul 09, 2013 8:30 am
by MTC
According to Etymonline:

maitre d'hotel

1530s, "head domestic," from French maître d'hôtel, literally "house-master," from Old French maistre "master; skilled worker, educator" (12c.), from Latin magistrum (see magistrate). Sense of "hotel manager, manager of a dining room" is from 1890. Shortened form maître d' is attested from 1942; simple maitre from 1899.

So it appears maitre d springs from the "spear side" (male side) of the verbal family, not the distaff side like matriculate.

Why not "patriculate" as an alternative to give the poor males of the species a chance? Then we could have alma pater.

Re: Matriculate

Posted: Tue Jul 09, 2013 10:11 am
by Perry Lassiter
Doc arrived at the very pinnacle of his examples today with "he was caught looking into the soul of the woman sitting next to him on an existentialism exam, and was expelled." Wonderful!

Matriculate was another of the words we played with to younger students asking whether they had ever matriculated or masticated.

Re: Matriculate

Posted: Tue Jul 09, 2013 11:45 am
by LukeJavan8
Uh-huh, and I bet I know what they sniggered about.