# Master's and bachelor's degrees--why the apostrophe s?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/masters-and-bachelors-degrees-why-the-apostrophe-s/433866
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [January 17, 2008, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/masters-and-bachelors-degrees-why-the-apostrophe-s/433866 "2008-01-17T15:11:42Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@peedin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peedin)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2008, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/masters-and-bachelors-degrees-why-the-apostrophe-s/433866/1 "2008-01-17T15:11:42Z")
I’ve come across the phrases “master’s prepared” and “bachelor’s prepared.” Four of us had a discussion at work and said the apostrophe is wrong. It doesn’t denote a contraction. But maybe it does denote a possessive. If so, what is it the possessive of?
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### Author:  [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2008, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/masters-and-bachelors-degrees-why-the-apostrophe-s/433866/2 "2008-01-17T15:23:52Z")
They are possessives. A master’s degree is a degree which belongs to a master. If you have a master’s degree, you are a master. Ergo, master’s degree.
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### Author:  [@peedin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peedin)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2008, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/masters-and-bachelors-degrees-why-the-apostrophe-s/433866/3 "2008-01-17T15:27:29Z")
[QUOTE=friedo]
They are possessives. A master’s degree is a degree which belongs to a master. If you have a master’s degree, you are a master. Ergo, master’s degree.
[/QUOTE]
A degree of a master. That I can understand. But what is the explanation of master’s prepared? Is it shorthand for “master’s degree prepared?”
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### Author:  [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2008, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/masters-and-bachelors-degrees-why-the-apostrophe-s/433866/4 "2008-01-17T15:40:22Z")
[QUOTE=peedin]
A degree of a master. That I can understand. But what is the explanation of master’s prepared? Is it shorthand for “master’s degree prepared?”
[/QUOTE]
That I couldn’t tell you. I have never heard that phrase.
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### Author:  [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2008, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/masters-and-bachelors-degrees-why-the-apostrophe-s/433866/5 "2008-01-17T15:42:00Z")
[QUOTE=peedin]
A degree of a master. That I can understand. But what is the explanation of master’s prepared? Is it shorthand for “master’s degree prepared?”
[/QUOTE]
That’s how I read it. I mean, I hear people say “I’m going for my master’s” all the time, and in that case the implied “degree” is pretty clear.
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### Author:  [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2008, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/masters-and-bachelors-degrees-why-the-apostrophe-s/433866/6 "2008-01-17T15:43:18Z")
“Master’s” is the title of the degree type, and ‘prepared’ is an adjective. No more strange than “Master’s in Mathematics”, say.
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### Author:  [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2008, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/masters-and-bachelors-degrees-why-the-apostrophe-s/433866/7 "2008-01-17T17:02:03Z")
[QUOTE=peedin]
A degree of a master. That I can understand. But what is the explanation of master’s prepared? Is it shorthand for “master’s degree prepared?”
[/QUOTE]
Yes.
For whatever reason, that’s a term that registered nurses seem to use. My wife is a nurse, and she uses that term all the time.
Of course, she (and other nurses) also pronounce “centimeter” as “SAHN-tuh-mee-ter.” I don’t know where nurses come up with this stuff.
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### Author:  [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2008, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/masters-and-bachelors-degrees-why-the-apostrophe-s/433866/8 "2008-01-17T22:23:30Z")
[QUOTE=friedo]
They are possessives. A master’s degree is a degree which belongs to a master. If you have a master’s degree, you are a master. Ergo, master’s degree.
[/QUOTE]
But what if you have a bachelor’s degree and you get married, huh?
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### Author:  [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2008, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/masters-and-bachelors-degrees-why-the-apostrophe-s/433866/9 "2008-01-17T22:47:09Z")
[QUOTE=GorillaMan]
“Master’s” is the title of the degree type, and ‘prepared’ is an adjective. No more strange than “Master’s in Mathematics”, say.
[/QUOTE]
But it’s unusual in English for the adjective to follow the noun. In this case, part of the noun phrase (“master’s degree”) has been omitted, adding to the confusion.
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### Author:  [@jasonh300](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasonh300)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2008, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/masters-and-bachelors-degrees-why-the-apostrophe-s/433866/10 "2008-01-18T02:18:50Z")
[QUOTE=Usram]
But it’s unusual in English for the adjective to follow the noun. In this case, part of the noun phrase (“master’s degree”) has been omitted, adding to the confusion.
[/QUOTE]
Sounds kinda like “cable ready” or “gender specific”.
(or should those be hyphenated…maybe I’m totally wrong on this)
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### Author:  [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2008, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/masters-and-bachelors-degrees-why-the-apostrophe-s/433866/11 "2008-01-18T02:30:02Z")
I glanced over at my diploma and it says “Master of Information Technology.” The degree grants you the title of Master. “Master’s” and “master’s degree” are, I think, colloquial. On a résumé, for example, you wouldn’t properly say “Master’s in Mathematics” but rather what your diploma would say, probably “Master of Mathematics.”
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2008, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/masters-and-bachelors-degrees-why-the-apostrophe-s/433866/12 "2008-01-18T02:36:36Z")
[QUOTE=robby]
Of course, she (and other nurses) also pronounce “centimeter” as “SAHN-tuh-mee-ter.” I don’t know where nurses come up with this stuff.
[/QUOTE]
It’s French pronunciation, though I have no idea what doctors in the US would use that.
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### Author:  [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2008, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/masters-and-bachelors-degrees-why-the-apostrophe-s/433866/13 "2008-01-18T03:53:48Z")
[QUOTE=RealityChuck]
It’s French pronunciation, though I have no idea what doctors in the US would use that.
[/QUOTE]
That’s what my wife said, too. She was told in nursing school that the word was French and should be pronounced that way. My response was that it’s now an English word, and should be pronounced accordingly. After all, “restaurant” also comes from the French, but we don’t pronounce it the way the French do.
For the most part, the doctors don’t pronounce it the French way, just the nurses. (Any doctors that do picked it up from the nurses.) I think it’s some sort of meme that wormed its way into the nursing schools–one influential nursing instructor pronounced it that way, and it spread through the community.
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### Author:  [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2008, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/masters-and-bachelors-degrees-why-the-apostrophe-s/433866/14 "2008-01-18T11:54:49Z")
[QUOTE=Usram]
But it’s unusual in English for the adjective to follow the noun. In this case, part of the noun phrase (“master’s degree”) has been omitted, adding to the confusion.
[/QUOTE]
Unusual, but not unknown. ‘Court martial’, for instance.
[QUOTE=CookingWithGas]
I glanced over at my diploma and it says “Master of Information Technology.” The degree grants you the title of Master. “Master’s” and “master’s degree” are, I think, colloquial. On a résumé, for example, you wouldn’t properly say “Master’s in Mathematics” but rather what your diploma would say, probably “Master of Mathematics.”
[/QUOTE]
Good point, mine says ‘Master of Music’. Mind you, on CV/resume or anywhere else I’d just put ‘MusM - Music’, anyway.
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### Author:  [@peedin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peedin)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2008, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/masters-and-bachelors-degrees-why-the-apostrophe-s/433866/15 "2008-01-18T14:00:37Z")
My diplomas say “Bachelor of Arts” and “Master of Science.” But I say I have a masters (with no apostrophe). **Robby** , I’m proofing the Magnet re-application for the nurses at the hospital and indeed, this is where I’m seeing “master’s prepared.” And most of the nurses here say “sahn-ta-meter” or however it’s spelled. I figured they were being pretentious.
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### Author:  [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2008, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/masters-and-bachelors-degrees-why-the-apostrophe-s/433866/16 "2008-01-18T15:09:08Z")
[QUOTE=peedin]
My diplomas say “Bachelor of Arts” and “Master of Science.” But I say I have a masters (with no apostrophe).
[/QUOTE]
The degrees are a bachelor’s and a master’s, respectively. If you write that you have a masters, you’re not writing according to the textbook rules of grammar.
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### Author:  [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2008, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/masters-and-bachelors-degrees-why-the-apostrophe-s/433866/17 "2008-01-18T15:20:15Z")
[QUOTE=CookingWithGas]
but rather what your diploma would say, probably “Master of Mathematics.”
[/QUOTE]
More likely, something like “X University Confers upon Y the Degree of Master of Science.” Most diplomas I’ve seen don’t state your major.
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### Author:  [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2008, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/masters-and-bachelors-degrees-why-the-apostrophe-s/433866/18 "2008-01-18T18:21:24Z")
[QUOTE=acsenray]
More likely, something like “X University Confers upon Y the Degree of Master of Science.” Most diplomas I’ve seen don’t state your major.
[/QUOTE]
Oh crap, of course. :smack:
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### Author:  [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)
#### Post date: [January 19, 2008, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/masters-and-bachelors-degrees-why-the-apostrophe-s/433866/19 "2008-01-19T15:39:33Z")
[QUOTE=acsenray]
More likely, something like “X University Confers upon Y the Degree of Master of Science.” Most diplomas I’ve seen don’t state your major.
[/QUOTE]
(This is a general comment. I’m just quoting you for ease)
If one is a “Master of Science,” the degree is consequently a “Master’s degree.” The person is a master, and the degree belongs to them: hence, “master’s.”
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### Author:  [@Cub\_Mistress](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cub_Mistress)
#### Post date: [January 19, 2008, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/masters-and-bachelors-degrees-why-the-apostrophe-s/433866/20 "2008-01-19T17:54:10Z")
[QUOTE=robby]
That’s what my wife said, too. She was told in nursing school that the word was French and should be pronounced that way. My response was that it’s now an English word, and should be pronounced accordingly. After all, “restaurant” also comes from the French, but we don’t pronounce it the way the French do.
For the most part, the doctors don’t pronounce it the French way, just the nurses. (Any doctors that do picked it up from the nurses.) I think it’s some sort of meme that wormed its way into the nursing schools–one influential nursing instructor pronounced it that way, and it spread through the community.
[/QUOTE]
Thanks for this information. One of our nursing instructors says it SAHN-tuh-mee-ter and none of us could figure out why. I must say, it sounds affected as hell when she says it. I’d roll my eyes but I sit on the front row.
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