doctor

doctor, title conferred by the highest university degree, taken from the Latin word for “teacher.” Originally there were three university degrees in European education: bachelor, licentiate (licence to teach), and master or doctor (admission into the teachers’ guild). The doctor’s degree was first awarded at Bologna in civil law toward the end of the 12th century, then in canon law, medicine, grammar, and other fields. In Paris the title master was most common but was interchangeable with the title doctor. English universities adopted the Parisian system but gradually the superior faculties awarded a doctorate while others retained the title master. In Germany master and doctor were at first interchangeable but the term doctor soon came to be applied to advanced degrees in all faculties. It was the German system that was adopted in most of the rest of the world. The original meaning of the doctorate is best preserved when applied to professors, but the title is now conferred in most fields that require lengthy periods of postgraduate study.