Also 3–5 com-. [a. OF. co(m)mencement (= Pr. comensamens, Cat. comensament, It. cominciamento); app. of Romanic age, f. comenzar to COMMENCE: see -MENT. Cf. also the shortened ME. comsemente.]
1. The action or process of commencing; beginning; time of beginning.
c. 1250. Serm., in O. E. Misc., 30. Þis was þe commencement of þo miracles of ure louerde.
c. 1450. Merlin, xiv. 219. And be-gonne freshly vpon hem as it hadde be at the comencement.
1528. in Strype, Eccl. Mem., I. App. xxiii. 58. If his Ho. contynued his good mynd towards the finishing and perfiting of that college, as his Ho. hath to the beginning and commencement.
1602. Shaks., Ham., III. i. 185. The Origin and Commencement of this greefe.
1742. Johnson, L. P., Sydenham, Wks. IV. 493. He was with-held from the university by the commencement of the war.
1798. Mission. Mag., No. 22. 156. Eager to emulate and exceed our commencements.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., II. v. 251. At the commencement of winter.
1885. Law Times Rep., LII. 618/1. At the time of such commencement to build.
2. The action of taking the full degree of Master or Doctor; esp. at Cambridge, Dublin, and the American universities, the great ceremony when these (also, in some cases other degrees, esp. in U.S., that of Bachelor) are conferred, at the end of the academical year.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), VI. 259. By a statute of the universite of Oxenford … he schal not spende at his comencement passynge þre þowsand of grootes turonens.
1587. Harrison, England, II. iii. (1877), I. 75. In Oxford this solemnitie is called an Act, but in Cambridge they vse the French word Commensement.
1593. Nashe, Four Lett. Confut., 74. Shewe mee the Vniuersities hand and seale that thou art a Doctour sealed and deliuered in the presence of a whole Commensement.
1689. Lond. Gaz., No. 2496/2. (Cambridge) An extraordinary Commencement being held on this signal Occasion, for conferring Degrees on persons of Worth in all Faculties.
1714–23. Ayliffe, Univ. of Oxf., II. III. i. 131. There is a general Commencement once every Year in all the Faculties of Learning, which is called the Act at Oxford, and the Commencement at Cambridge.
1858. Masson, Milton, I. 163. Three days before the close of the academic year … there was held at Cambridge the great public ceremony of the ‘Commencement.’
1890. Academy, 5 July, 12/2. Dublin University … The recipients of honorary degrees at the commencement are, etc.
b. transf. and fig.
1563–87. Foxe, A. & M. (1596), 162/1. The princes of Almanie … assembled a Commensement, where they did consult and so conclude to elect another emperor.
1606. Holland, Sueton., 182 (R.). Being honourably brought into the Forum, the day of his first plea and commencement.
1655. Fuller, Hist. Camb. (1840), 8. Now it is become a great fair, and, as I may term it, one of the townsmen’s ‘Commencements,’ wherein they take their ‘degrees’ of wealth.
3. attrib. and Comb. (sense 2), as commencement day, etc.
1606. Holland, Sueton., 154. Also upon his commensement day, when he was to put on his virile gown.
1613. Purchas, Pilgr., IV. xvi. 372. Doe assemble themselves at the Common Schoole or Commencement-house.
1661. K. W., Conf. Charac., Univ. Beadle (1860), 72. Fit for nothing else but to be made the fool at a commencement vacation.
1690. Lond. Gaz., No. 2566/4. Tuesday the first of July, is the Commencement-Day at Cambridge this year.
1858. O. W. Holmes, Aut. Breakf.-t., Race of Life. ‘Commencement day.’ … reminds me of the start for the ‘Derby.’
1887. Cabot, Mem. Emerson, I. 64. Mr. Samuel Bradford, Emerson’s friend from childhood, was present at the Commencement exercises when the class graduated in 1821.
