Quick links
aegrotat
< Latin aegrōtat ‘he/she is sick’
DCHP-2 (Sep 2016)
Spelling variants:AEG,
adj. — Education, rare
a final grade being assigned for incomplete coursework, usually on medical or compassionate grounds.
Type: 2. Preservation — The term is a contender for a preservation from BrE in CanE. It is a formal term that has been in general decline, but has some currency in the former colonies of New Zealand and South Africa, followed, with some margin, by Canada. Its use in the US is limited (see Chart 1; neither W-3 nor AHD-5 list it).
In the North American context, British forms have traditionally been employed in Canada to distinguish CanE from AmE. For instance BrE pram for stroller, BrE (pay) cheque for (pay) check or pronunciations, e.g. student pronounced as [styoodent] with a palatal glide, instead of [stoodent]. Generally, most British preservations are declining in use today (Chambers 1998a: 28-30), either by specializing to limited registers, such as aegrotat; or they are re-indexed (bestowed) with new social meanings, as CanE develops its own characteristics. An example of the latter would be student pronounced as [styoodent], which no longer necessarily indexes ''Britishness'', but often ''learnedness'' or ''erudition'' (Clarke 2006: 242; see also Chambers 2004 on 'Canadian Dainty', Avis 1973: 62 on a "phony British accent" in Canada).
See also COD-2, s.v. "aegrotat" (2), which is marked "Cdn & Brit.", Gage-1, s.v. "aegrotat", ITP Nelson, s.v. "aegrotat", OED-3, s.v. "aegrotat", W-3, s.v. "aegrotat", which is marked "Brit".'
In the North American context, British forms have traditionally been employed in Canada to distinguish CanE from AmE. For instance BrE pram for stroller, BrE (pay) cheque for (pay) check or pronunciations, e.g. student pronounced as [styoodent] with a palatal glide, instead of [stoodent]. Generally, most British preservations are declining in use today (Chambers 1998a: 28-30), either by specializing to limited registers, such as aegrotat; or they are re-indexed (bestowed) with new social meanings, as CanE develops its own characteristics. An example of the latter would be student pronounced as [styoodent], which no longer necessarily indexes ''Britishness'', but often ''learnedness'' or ''erudition'' (Clarke 2006: 242; see also Chambers 2004 on 'Canadian Dainty', Avis 1973: 62 on a "phony British accent" in Canada).
See also COD-2, s.v. "aegrotat" (2), which is marked "Cdn & Brit.", Gage-1, s.v. "aegrotat", ITP Nelson, s.v. "aegrotat", OED-3, s.v. "aegrotat", W-3, s.v. "aegrotat", which is marked "Brit".'
Canadian academic institutions use the term more frequently than do those in the UK. In the US, aegrotat does not seem to have much currency. The universities of Yale, Harvard and Stanford were founded under British rule, but the term is not found in their current academic policies.
Quotations
1893
J.R. Graham is granted Aegrotat standing with honors in political science on passing an examination in French or German in September, 1893.
1940
That same year he won the E.M. Dawson Scholarship for fourth year engineering, and in 1935 he was granted aegrotat degrees in both Arts and Science.
1995
A good point; the amount of glee you feel at someone bluffing his way through exams does depend on how relevant they are to what comes next. I wouldn't much want a doctor who'd got an aegrotat (a pass issued when student was too ill to write the exam) for anatomy, but it might be no great matter if a potential English teacher, say, cut a few corners.
2004
Aegrotat standing is the granting of credit for a course in which the required examination was not taken. The credit will be a mark/grade based on evaluation of achievement in the term work in the course. Aegrotat standing may be granted only for a student who has been unable to take the required final examination for medical or compassionate reasons.
References
- OED-3
- W-3
- Chambers (2004)
- Clarke (2006)
- Avis (1973)
- Gage-1
- ITP Nelson
- Chambers (1998a)
- COD-2
- AHD-5
Images
