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.