資料來源 : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
Faculty \Fac"ul*ty\, n.; pl. {Faculties}. [F. facult?, 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 ! --Shak.
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.
--Shak.
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, ect.
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.
{Dean of faculty}. See under {Dean}.
{Faculty of advocates}. (Scot.) See under {Advocate}.
Syn: Talent; gift; endowment; dexterity; expertness;
cleverness; readiness; ability; knack.
Dean \Dean\, n. [OE. dene, deene, OF. deien, dien, F. doyen,
eldest of a corporation, a dean, L. decanus the chief of ten,
one set over ten persons, e. g., over soldiers or over monks,
from decem ten. See {Ten}, and cf. {Decemvir}.]
1. A dignitary or presiding officer in certain ecclesiastical
and lay bodies; esp., an ecclesiastical dignitary,
subordinate to a bishop.
{Dean of cathedral church}, the chief officer of a chapter;
he is an ecclesiastical magistrate next in degree to
bishop, and has immediate charge of the cathedral and its
estates.
{Dean of peculiars}, a dean holding a preferment which has
some peculiarity relative to spiritual superiors and the
jurisdiction exercised in it. [Eng.]
{Rural dean}, one having, under the bishop, the especial care
and inspection of the clergy within certain parishes or
districts of the diocese.
2. The collegiate officer in the universities of Oxford and
Cambridge, England, who, besides other duties, has regard
to the moral condition of the college. --Shipley.
3. The head or presiding officer in the faculty of some
colleges or universities.
4. A registrar or secretary of the faculty in a department of
a college, as in a medical, or theological, or scientific
department. [U.S.]
5. The chief or senior of a company on occasion of ceremony;
as, the dean of the diplomatic corps; -- so called by
courtesy.
{Cardinal dean}, the senior cardinal bishop of the college of
cardinals at Rome. --Shipley.
{Dean and chapter}, the legal corporation and governing body
of a cathedral. It consists of the dean, who is chief, and
his canons or prebendaries.
{Dean of arches}, the lay judge of the court of arches.
{Dean of faculty}, the president of an incorporation or
barristers; specifically, the president of the
incorporation of advocates in Edinburgh.
{Dean of guild}, a magistrate of Scotch burghs, formerly, and
still, in some burghs, chosen by the Guildry, whose duty
is to superintend the erection of new buildings and see
that they conform to the law.
{Dean of a monastery}, {Monastic dean}, a monastic superior
over ten monks.
{Dean's stall}. See {Decanal stall}, under {Decanal}.