Forms: 4–5 licenciat, -cyat, 6–7 licenciate, -tiat, 6– licentiate. [ad. med.L. licentiātus (see next) used absol. as sb.]
1. One who has obtained a licence or authoritative permission to exercise some function.
† a. (See quot.) Obs.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Prol., 220. He [the frere] hadde power of confessioun … moore than a Curat, For of his ordre he was licenciat.
b. One who has received a ‘licence’ from a university, college, or the like. In early use sometimes gen. = ‘graduate’; more commonly spec. the holder of a particular degree between bachelor and master or doctor, still preserved in certain foreign universities (cf. Sp. licenciato, F. licencié); the latest use in England was in the Cambridge degree of Licentiate of Medicine (Medicinæ licentiatus, abbreviated M.L.) which was abolished in 1859. In current British use, almost exclusively in certain designations indicating that the bearer of them has received a formal attestation of professional competence or of a certain degree of proficiency in some art from some collegiate or other examining body: e.g., in Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians (abbreviated L.R.C.P.), Licentiate in Dental Surgery (L.D.S.), Licentiate of the Royal Academy of Music (L.R.A.M.), Licentiate of the College of Preceptors (L.C.P.). The University of Durham grants the title of Licentiate in Theology (L.Th.) to those who pass a certain examination, open both to graduates and non-graduates.
1489. Caxton, Faytes of A., III. xix. 210. A scoler licencyat atte Cambryge in Englande is come to the unyuersyte of parys.
1555. Eden, Decades, 80. In the Ilande of saynte Iohn … Alfonsus Mansus a licenciate [is bysshop].
1595. A. Copley, Wits Fits & Fancies, 82. A reuerend Licentiate at law was a suter to a fair Gentlewoman.
1604. E. G[rimstone], D’Acosta’s Hist. Indies, IV. vii. 225. Whenas the licentiate Pollo governed that Province.
a. 1639. Spottiswood, Hist. Ch. Scotl. (Spottiswoode Soc., 1847), I. 211. Alexander Barre, licenciate in the laws succeeded … and died … 1397.
1669. Woodhead, St. Teresa, II. xxxv. 240. The next day … comes the Priest with the Licentiate.
1691. Wood, Ath. Oxon., I. 345. He was made a Licentiat of Divinity.
1726. Ayliffe, Parergon, 54. The Degree of a Licentiate or Master in this Faculty.
1727–41. Chambers, Cycl., s.v., Most of the officers of judicature in Spain are known by no other name than that of licentiates. Licentiate among us, is usually understood of a physician, who has a licence to practice.
1779–81. Johnson, L. P., Garth. The College of Physicians, in July, 1687, published an edict, requiring all the fellows, candidates, and licentiates, to give gratuitous advice to the neighbouring poor.
1789. Gibbon, Autobiog. (1854), 29. I should applaud the institution, if the degrees of bachelor or licentiate were bestowed as the reward of manly and successful study.
1805. Med. & Phys. Jrnl., XIV. 550. The regimental surgeon,… not a member or licentiate of the College of Physicians.
1826. Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. II. 188. As fatal as any prescription of licentiate or quack.
1850. Prescott, Peru, II. 304. The licentiate, thus commissioned … embarked at Seville.
1857. Livingstone, Trav., Introd. 7. I was admitted a Licentiate of Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons.
1901. Whitaker’s Almanac, 268. Royal Academy of Music. There are … 1,361 Licentiates (L.R.A.M.). Ibid. College of Preceptors. Teachers … are granted diplomas of F.C.P., L.C.P. and A.C.P.
c. In the Presbyterian and some other churches: One who holds a licence to preach but as yet has no appointment; a probationer.
1854. H. Miller, Sch. & Schm., ii. (1860), 16. Four of the Presbytery … repaired to the parish church to conduct the settlement of the obnoxious Licentiate.
1866. Carlyle, Remin., I. 118. Irving’s preachings as a licentiate (or probationer waiting for fixed appointment) were always interesting.
2. nonce-use. One who claims or uses licence; one who is not precise in the observance of rules.
1605. Camden, Rem., Anagrams (1657), 168. The licentiats somewhat licentiously, lest they should prejudice poeticall liberty, will pardon themselves for doubling or rejecting a letter, if the sence fall aptly.
Hence Licentiateship, the dignity or condition of a licentiate.
1881. J. Bonar, in Macm. Mag., XLIV. 202/1. Then he [Professor in a Parisian lycée] … proceeded to pass the more difficult examination for the ‘licentiate-ship’ in his special subject.
