University
Webster's Dictionary [1]
(1): ( n.) An association, society, guild, or corporation, esp. one capable of having and acquiring property.
(2): ( n.) The universe; the whole.
(3): ( n.) An institution organized and incorporated for the purpose of imparting instruction, examining students, and otherwise promoting education in the higher branches of literature, science, art, etc., empowered to confer degrees in the several arts and faculties, as in theology, law, medicine, music, etc. A university may exist without having any college connected with it, or it may consist of but one college, or it may comprise an assemblage of colleges established in any place, with professors for instructing students in the sciences and other branches of learning.
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature [2]
a universal school; an assembly of students of all countries, students in every branch of learning, in one general society, having their own seal and place of business. Camden says the term was generally used in the reign of Henry III (of England). During the 12th century there were several eminent universities in Europe. Spain and Germany had universities of schools where the students formed part of the corporation. Paris and England had universities of masters only; some ill Germany and France were of either kind. (See College).
