Also 7–9 -ate. [L., = he supplicates, 3rd pers. sing. pres. ind. of supplicāre to SUPPLICATE. Formerly often assimilated in form to abstract nouns in -ATE1:—L. ātus (but cf. med.L. supplicātus).
In university use arising from its occurrence as the first word in the formula used by the proctor in presenting the petition. In quots. 1660 and 18592 perh. an independent formation in -ATE1.]
A supplication, petition; spec. (now only) in English universities, a formal petition for a degree or for incorporation (cf. SUPPLICANT b, SUPPLICATE v. 3, SUPPLICATION e).
1660. Z. Crofton, Fastening of St. Peter’s Fetters, 153. The servants query … was not a supplicate for an Authoritative Release; but a scrutiny into the Extent of the Oath.
1665. J. Buck, in Peacock, Stat. Cambr. (1841), App. B. p. xc. There are no supplicats put up for King’s College Fellows.
1691. Wood, Ath. Oxon., I. Fasti, 637. This year was a Supplicate made in the venerable Congregation of Regents for one Tho. Dalby to be admitted to a Degree in Decrees. Ibid., 641. Supplicat. Ibid., 662. This year … there was a kind of a Supplicate made for one Magnus a Doctor beyond the Sea, to be incorporated here.
1715. M. Davies, Athen. Brit., I. 23. This Supplicat being granted, he was … crown’d … with a Wreath of Lawrel; that is, doctorated in the Arts of Grammar and Rhetorick.
1859. Cambr. Univ. Cal., 2. No degree is ever conferred without a Grace for that purpose. The Grace in this instance is termed a Supplicat.
1859. Masson, Milton, I. vii. 678. The king has hitherto shown his displeasure by leaving the supplicates substantially unanswered.
1906. J. Wells, Oxf. Degree Ceremony, 8. One of the Proctors reads out the supplicat, i. e. the petition of the candidate or candidates to be allowed to graduate.
