universityyoudaoicibaDictYouDict[university 词源字典]
university: [14] The etymological notion underlying a university is that it denotes the ‘whole’ number of those belonging to it. The word comes via Old French universite from Latin ūniversitās, which was derived from ūniversus (source of English universe). This originally meant the ‘whole’, but in the postclassical period it was applied to guilds and other such associations, referring to the ‘totality’ of their membership. These included societies of teachers and students, from which the modern meaning of university emerged.
=> universe[university etymology, university origin, 英语词源]
university (n.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
c. 1300, "institution of higher learning," also "body of persons constituting a university," from Anglo-French université, Old French universite "universality; academic community" (13c.), from Medieval Latin universitatem (nominative universitas), "the whole, aggregate," in Late Latin "corporation, society," from universus "whole, entire" (see universe). In the academic sense, a shortening of universitas magistrorum et scholarium "community of masters and scholars;" superseded studium as the word for this. The Latin word also is the source of Spanish universidad, German universität, Russian universitetŭ, etc.