[f. COMMENCE v. + -ER.]
1. One who commences; a beginner.
1659. Gauden, Tears Ch., 23. The first five famous Planters and Commencers in England.
1821. H. Coleridge, Ess. (1851), I. 5. The first commencers of this corruption.
† 2. One who ‘commences’ at a university. In American colleges, a member of the senior class after the examination for degrees. Obs.
1655. Fuller, Hist. Camb. (1840), 208. Hitherto we have given in the list of the yearly Commencers.
1660. H. More, Myst. Godl., I. i. 4. Μύστης, Mysta, a Scholar or Commencer in Divine Mysteries.
1702. C. Mather, Magn. Chr., IV. Introd. (1852), 13. Orations … made by some or other of the commencers.
1712. Life Bp. Stillingfl., 25. Never did the Professor more vigorously exert his utmost force, in the trial of any Commencer.
1733. Gentl. Mag., July, III. 383. William Nicholes, Commencer in Arts of Corpus-Christi College, open’d the Act.
