postgraduateadj.n.
/ˌpəʊs(t)ˈɡradʒʊət/, /ˌpəʊs(t)ˈɡradjʊət/, U.S. /ˌpoʊs(t)ˈɡrædʒəwət/ Originally U.S.
A. adj.
Of or relating to the period after graduating; designating a course or institution for people undertaking a higher qualification after completing a first degree, or a student taking such a course. Also in extended use and figurative.
ΘΚΠ
society > education > [adjective] > level of education
advanced1705
postgraduate1858
post-school1898
pre-college1903
pre-professional1909
post-primary1919
postgrad1933
1858 N.Y. Times 30 June 8/2 The President said the occasion seemed a fitting one to make a few remarks on the post-graduate or university course which the trustees of the College have voted to establish.
1886 J. R. Lowell Wks. (1890) VI. 168 Special and advanced courses should be pushed on into the post-graduate period.
1901 Daily Chron. 15 Oct. 4/3 A new building in connection with the Post-Graduate College, of the West London Hospital.
1931 J. van Dernoot (title) Postgraduate contract bridge: advanced points for advanced players.
1955 Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. No. 24. 30 Only after they [sc. amateur adult criminals] have been exposed to the postgraduate curriculum of prison life do a few of them make possible recruits for the ranks of the professionals.
1975 Lang. for Life (Dept. Educ. & Sci.) xxiii. 338 A form of teacher training which has shown a considerable expansion in recent years is the one-year course for graduates, leading to a post-graduate certificate of education.
2005 S. Wales Evening Post (Nexis) 4 Jan. 8 The post-graduate students from Swansea and Port Talbot are now full members of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.
B. n.
A student taking a postgraduate course or other higher qualification; (also) a graduate who has successfully completed such a course or qualification.
ΘΚΠ
society > education > learning > learner > college or university student > [noun] > postgraduate student
fellow1715
postgraduate1877
post1900
postgrad1976
1877 Rep. Joint Comm. Michigan Legislature 603 There are a great many post-graduates who come to study mining engineering.
1883 M. C. Thomas Let. 14 Aug. in Making of Feminist (1979) 280 Let these be competed for by the post-graduates from other colleges.
1904 M. E. Waller Wood-carver 178 Marking out the work for the post-graduates..has filled my time.
1959 New Statesman 23 May 730/2 There is the ‘grand tour’ of the post-graduate, working off his money at the end of a year at Harvard or Princeton.
1975 Physics Bull. Mar. 129/3 By issuing in both cased and paperback editions, Macmillan have ensured that postgraduates should be able to afford it.
1990 Times Educ. Suppl. 23 Nov. 9/2 Defence is a contracting industry, and some recent postgraduates have had problems finding work.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2006; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.n.1858