Bachelorship

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The condition of an unmarried male can refer to a title obtained after completing undergraduate studies, and it may also indicate a life stage fulfilled by social norms
2. This term denotes the status of a man who is not married, describes an academic degree earned at the undergraduate level, and encompasses life experiences tied to singlehood
3. The condition of a male who has not married ; a qualification received upon finishing college-level education

Etymology: "Bachelorship" is a plain compound: "bachelor" with the suffix "-ship" attached. The suffix goes back to a Proto-Germanic root meaning something like "shape" or "creation," which gave Old English "-sċiepe," a word for a state or condition. In Middle English it became "-schipe," and it eventually settled into the modern "-ship" that English uses to form nouns for states, conditions, and qualities, as in "friendship" or "hardship." The sense of a degree or title earned on finishing undergraduate study grew out of the older meaning of "bachelor" as a young man who had not yet become a knight or master, and it is the condition of holding that status that "bachelorship" names. The second sense, the unmarried state as a stage of life, follows from the same root idea of being a bachelor. Both meanings are straightforward applications of the suffix to the base noun, with no special history attached to the compound itself.

Synonyms: singleness, unmarried status, bachelorhood, celibacy, single life

Antonyms: married, matrimony, union, coupledom, partnership