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Webster 1913 Edition

Faculty

Fac′ul-ty

,
Noun.
;
pl.
Faculties
(#)
.
[F.
facult[GREEK]
, L.
facultas
, fr.
facilis
easy (cf.
facul
easily), fr.
fecere
to make. See
Fact
, and cf.
Facility
.]
1.
Ability to act or perform, whether inborn or cultivated; capacity for any natural function; especially, an original mental power or capacity for any of the well-known classes of mental activity; psychical or soul capacity; capacity for any of the leading kinds of soul activity, as knowledge, feeling, volition; intellectual endowment or gift; power;
as,
faculties
of the mind or the soul
.
But know that in the soul
Are many lesser
faculties
that serve
Reason as chief.
Milton.
What a piece of work is a man ! how noble in reason ! how infinite in
faculty
!
Shakespeare
2.
Special mental endowment; characteristic knack.
He had a ready
faculty
, indeed, of escaping from any topic that agitated his too sensitive and nervous temperament.
Hawthorne.
3.
Power; prerogative or attribute of office.
[R.]
This Duncan
Hath borne his
faculties
so meek.
Shakespeare
4.
Privilege or permission, granted by favor or indulgence, to do a particular thing; authority; license; dispensation.
The pope . . . granted him a
faculty
to set him free from his promise.
Fuller.
It had not only
faculty
to inspect all bishops’ dioceses, but to change what laws and statutes they should think fit to alter among the colleges.
Evelyn.
5.
A body of a men to whom any specific right or privilege is granted; formerly, the graduates in any of the four departments of a university or college (Philosophy, Law, Medicine, or Theology), to whom was granted the right of teaching (profitendi or docendi) in the department in which they had studied; at present, the members of a profession itself;
as, the medical
faculty
; the legal
faculty
, etc.
6.
(Amer. Colleges)
The body of person to whom are intrusted the government and instruction of a college or university, or of one of its departments; the president, professors, and tutors in a college.
Syn. – Talent; gift; endowment; dexterity; expertness; cleverness; readiness; ability; knack.

Webster 1828 Edition

Faculty

FAC'ULTY

,
Noun.
[L. facultas, from facio, to make.]
1.
That power of the mind or intellect which enables it to receive, revive or modify perceptions; as the faculty of seeing, of hearing, of imagining, of remembering, &c.: or in general, the faculties may be called the powers or capacities of the mind.
2.
The power of doing any thing; ability. There is no faculty or power in creatures, which can rightly perform its functions, without the perpetual aid of the Supreme Being.
3.
The power of performing any action, natural, vital or animal.
The vital faculty is that by which life is preserved.
4.
Facility of performance; the peculiar skill derived from practice, or practice aided by nature; habitual skill or ability; dexterity; adroitness; knack. One man has a remarkable faculty of telling a story; another, of inventing excuses for misconduct; a third, of reasoning; a fourth, of preaching.
5.
Personal quality; disposition or habit, good or ill.
6.
Power; authority.
Hath borne his faculties so meek. [Hardly legitimate.]
7.
Mechanical power; as the faculty of the wedge. [Not used, nor legitimate.]
8.
Natural virtue; efficacy; as the faculty of simples. [Not used, nor legitimate.]
9.
Privilege; a right or power granted to a person by favor or indulgence, to do what by law he may not do; as the faculty of marrying without the bans being first published, or of ordaining a deacon under age. The archbishop of Canterbury has a court of faculties, for granting such privileges or dispensations.
10.
In colleges, the masters and professors of the several sciences.
One of the members or departments of a university. In most universities there are four faculties; of art, including humanity and philosophy; of theology; of medicine; and of law.
In America, the faculty of a college or university consists of the president, professors and tutors.
The faculty of advocates, in Scotland, is a respectable body of lawyers who plead in all causes before the Courts of Session, Justiciary and Exchequer.

Definition 2024

faculty

faculty

English

Noun

faculty ‎(plural faculties)

  1. The scholarly staff at schools, colleges or universities, as opposed to the students or support staff.
  2. A division of a university (e.g. a Faculty of Science or Faculty of Medicine).
  3. An ability, skill, or power, often plural.
    • 1974, Thomas S. Szasz, M.D., chapter 12, in The Myth of Mental Illness, ISBN 0-06-091151-4, page 201:
      I have used the notion of games so far as if it were familiar to most people. I think this is justified as everyone knows how to play some games. Accordingly, games serve admirably as models for the clarification of other, less well-understood, social-psychological phenomena. Yet the ability to follow rules, play games, and construct new games is a faculty not equally shared by all persons. [...]
    He lived until he reached the age of 90 with most of his faculties intact.
  4. A power, authority or privilege conferred by a higher authority

Synonyms

  • See also Wikisaurus:faculty

Related terms

Translations

External links

  • faculty in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
  • faculty in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911

Etymology

From Middle English faculte ‎(“power, property”), from Old French faculte, from Latin facultas ‎(“capability, ability, skill, abundance, plenty, stock, goods, properly, Medieval Latin also a body of teachers”), another form of facilitas ‎(“easiness, facility, etc.”), from facul, another form of facilis ‎(“easy, facile”); see facile.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /fækʊltiː/

Similar Results