# 'Aegrotat': is/was this term in use at your university? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 23, 2014, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aegrotat-is-was-this-term-in-use-at-your-university/696258 "2014-08-23T01:55:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2014, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aegrotat-is-was-this-term-in-use-at-your-university/696258/1 "2014-08-23T01:55:00Z")
It was a clue in yesterday’s crossword, with the definition “certificate of illness in universities”. It makes sense. It’s from the Latin verb _aegrotare_ and simply means ‘he is sick’. I’ve just not come across it before. I’d guess it’s more common in UK universities. ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2014, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aegrotat-is-was-this-term-in-use-at-your-university/696258/2 "2014-08-23T01:58:16Z")
Never heard of it. USian, in college seventies-eighties. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2014, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aegrotat-is-was-this-term-in-use-at-your-university/696258/3 "2014-08-23T02:05:23Z")
I have a feeling it was used at Waterloo in the early eighties. :: checks Waterloo website :: > [@](#): > > (Aegrotat) - added to academic decision 1, 2, 3, or 4; proceed to next term. The student has adequate understanding of the material, but because of illness or other extenuating circumstances, normal evaluation for at least one course was not possible. [Source.](http://www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infoucal/9798/ENG/eandp.html) ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2014, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aegrotat-is-was-this-term-in-use-at-your-university/696258/4 "2014-08-23T04:47:45Z")
Yes, I have come across it in the UK university context. ---
**Author:** ![Girl\_From\_Mars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3da27b/32.png) [@Girl\_From\_Mars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Girl_From_Mars)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2014, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aegrotat-is-was-this-term-in-use-at-your-university/696258/5 "2014-08-23T06:55:39Z")
Yes, NZ university in the 1990s. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2014, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aegrotat-is-was-this-term-in-use-at-your-university/696258/6 "2014-08-23T08:51:59Z")
Yes, south African university, in the 90s ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2014, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aegrotat-is-was-this-term-in-use-at-your-university/696258/7 "2014-08-23T08:56:16Z")
Yes, UK university. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2014, 9:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aegrotat-is-was-this-term-in-use-at-your-university/696258/8 "2014-08-23T09:01:49Z")
OK, so we’ve got Canada, New Zealand, the UK, South Africa…and Australia too, according to friends and colleagues. I just never came across it while doing my degrees. It looks at the very least as though it’s a Commonwealth term. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2014, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aegrotat-is-was-this-term-in-use-at-your-university/696258/9 "2014-08-23T09:03:35Z")
No, none of the three US universities/colleges I attended, nor any of the three others I’ve taught at. I thought this was going to be about some trend among college kids to give themselves tattoos of farm animals. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2014, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aegrotat-is-was-this-term-in-use-at-your-university/696258/10 "2014-08-23T09:20:30Z")
Melbourne and Edinburgh - never heard of it. Not that that proves anything. ---
**Author:** ![vontsira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/51bf81/32.png) [@vontsira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vontsira)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2014, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aegrotat-is-was-this-term-in-use-at-your-university/696258/11 "2014-08-23T10:54:15Z")
Am familiar with the term, in a UK university context. The question of pronunciation possibly comes up – tying-in, I suppose, with one’s preferred Latin-pronouncing conventions: “Ee-gro…”, or “Eye-gro…”? At my uni, Oxford, “Eye-gro-tat” was said. It always suggested to me, a deplorably sexist and disrespectful bit of verbal whimsy – one might say to a well-endowed lady friend: “Aegrotat, and Eugrotit”. ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2014, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aegrotat-is-was-this-term-in-use-at-your-university/696258/12 "2014-08-23T12:28:01Z")
I’ve never seen it used at any of the US colleges/universities I attended. Of course, I doubt anyone at the the cow college where I got my BA has ever even heard of Latin, let alone “aegrotat”. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2014, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aegrotat-is-was-this-term-in-use-at-your-university/696258/13 "2014-08-23T14:04:13Z")
Of course, most _students_ probably never would hear this, unless is was specifically relevant to their own case. The fact that someone took a degree at a US university and never heard it means nothing. If long established faculty or reasonably high level staff never heard it, though, it probably is not in use. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2014, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aegrotat-is-was-this-term-in-use-at-your-university/696258/14 "2014-08-23T15:10:50Z")
I am familiar with the word. But only because I recently appeared in a community theater production of [The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_25th_Annual_Putnam_County_Spelling_Bee), and “aegrotat” was one of the spelling words. As I recall, the definition did say that it was used in British universities. ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2014, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aegrotat-is-was-this-term-in-use-at-your-university/696258/15 "2014-08-23T15:16:09Z")
I went to McGill (Montreal, Canada) and have never come across the term there. I never heard the term before this thread. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2014, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aegrotat-is-was-this-term-in-use-at-your-university/696258/16 "2014-08-23T16:10:32Z")
Decades in US universities of various types. Never heard of it. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2014, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aegrotat-is-was-this-term-in-use-at-your-university/696258/17 "2014-08-23T16:40:33Z")
US, attended 4 and have worked (including in mental health services) at 6: No. ---
**Author:** ![Topologist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/topologist/32/3208_2.png) [@Topologist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Topologist)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2014, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aegrotat-is-was-this-term-in-use-at-your-university/696258/18 "2014-08-23T22:53:45Z")
US, attended and worked at colleges (faculty and administration) for 37 years, never heard the term. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2014, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aegrotat-is-was-this-term-in-use-at-your-university/696258/19 "2014-08-24T02:34:21Z")
This thread makes me think of this [Turkish basketball player](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcin_Gortat). ---
**Author:** ![apollonia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2bfe46/32.png) [@apollonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/apollonia)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2014, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aegrotat-is-was-this-term-in-use-at-your-university/696258/20 "2014-08-24T03:37:47Z")
Two Canadian universities, including the oldest English university in Canada, never heard of it before today. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aegrotat-is-was-this-term-in-use-at-your-university/696258.md?page=2)