User:Anthonyhcole/OED Scholarship

From the Oxford English Dictionary (online) accessed 25 May 2010.

1. a. The attainments of a scholar; learning, erudition; esp. proficiency in the Greek and Latin languages and their literature. Also, the collective attainments of scholars; the sphere of polite learning.

1589 NASHE Pref. Greene's Menaphon (Arb.) 16-17 [T. Atchelow] hath more than once or twise manifested his deepe witted schollership in places of credit.

1624 GATAKER Transubst. 75 He hath a singular piece of Schollership by himselfe to justify his Exposition.

1784 COWPER Tiroc. 280 Ye once were justly fam'd for bringing forth Undoubted scholarship and genuine worth.

1823 D'ISRAELI Cur. Lit. Ser. II. (1851) 313 Scholarship has hitherto been a term reserved for the adept in ancient literature.

1887 RUSKIN Præterita II. 18 His memory (the necessary instrument of great scholarship) errorless and effortless.

b. Applied, by unlearned speakers, etc., to educational attainments of a more modest character.

1620 ROWLANDS Nt. Raven 8 Then for my schollership a gentleman, Both reade and write, and cast a count I can.

1650 COWLEY Guardian I. iii, Hast thou scholarship enough to make a Brewers clerk?
1758 JOHNSON Idler No. 26 {page}6 My reputation for scholarship..was..considered as a crime.

1860 J. W. WARTER Sea-board II. 30, I did not tell you what the lady said to me on my telling her I was no scholar. ‘Never mind that,’ said she... ‘Your no scholarship is no hindrance if you are only faithful.’

c. ‘Literary education’ (J.). Obs. rare.

1644 MILTON Educ. 3 This place should be at once both School and University, not needing a remove to any other house of Schollership, except it be some peculiar Colledge of Law, or Physick.

2. a. The status or emoluments of a scholar (see SCHOLAR 4) at a school, college, or university.

1535-6 Act 27 Hen. VIII, c. 42 §1 The..Felowshippes Scolershippes Dimishippes..within the said Universities.

1583 SIR H. GILBERT Q. Eliz. Achad. (1869) 10 And also the other vniuersities shall then better suffize to releive poore schollers, where now the youth of nobility and gentle~men, taking vp their schollarshippes and fellowshippes, do disapoincte the poore of their livinges and avauncementes.

1746 T. WARTON Progr. Discontent 23 A Scholarship but half maintains, And College Rules are heavy Chains.

1829 R. GILBERT Liber Scholast. 3 Craven Scholarships. Ibid. 5 Dean Ireland's Scholarships.

1857 HUGHES Tom Brown I. vi, I know I'd sooner win two School-house matches running than get the Balliol scholarship any day.

1884 J. F. MOSS Handbk. New Code 78 What are called Elementary School Scholarships.

1861 J. S. WATSON Life Porson xx. 239 He was sent, on a scholarship, to Jesus College, Cambridge.

b. spec. (though loosely) The ‘eleven-plus’ examination or the entrance to a grammar school made possible by reaching a satisfactory standard.

1959 in I. & P. Opie Lore & Lang. Schoolch. xi. 227 On the day I went to sit the scholarship I took the little owl and wrapped it up in a handkerchief in my pocket for luck.

1959 I. & P. OPIE Ibid. xvi. 356 Today the sharpest feeling is between the grammar schools and the secondary moderns, that is, between those who have gained a scholarship and those who have not in the eleven-plus examination.

1966 J. PARTRIDGE Middle School iv. 59 In Middle School the eleven plus is still viewed as ‘the scholarship’.

3. attrib. and Comb., as (sense 2) scholarship boy, -candidate, child, class, exam, kid, paper, system; scholarship level = S-level s.v. S I. 4a.

1959 T. S. ELIOT Elder Statesman I. 31 A scholarship boy from an unknown grammar school.

1980 R. F. FOSTER in Lyons & Hawkins Ireland under Union 254 ‘Scholarship boys’ in politics.

1965 N. COGHILL in J. Gibb Light on C. S. Lewis 65 What it was learned to know in :1950 will be expected of scholarship-candidates in 2000.

1964 D. HOLBROOK English for the Rejected 4 The attempt to turn every child into a ‘scholarship child’ fit for academic education.

1966 J. PARTRIDGE Middle School v. 79 In the Junior School a ‘scholarship’ class soon emerges.

1959 in I. & P. Opie Lore & Lang. Schoolch. xi. 227, I took it to the scholarship exam for the grammar school and I passed.

1977 M. WALKER National Front 8 My education as a scholarship kid who went to grammar schools and won a scholarship to Oxford.

1947, 1963 Scholarship level [see ORDINARY a. 5e].

1832 J. ROMILLY Diary 26 Apr. (1967) 11 Worked at the Scholarship papers all day.

1927 CARR-SAUNDERS & JONES Social Structure Eng. & Wales xi. 119 We must also attempt to analyse the working of the free-place and scholarship system.