ABSIT. Latin; literally, _let him be absent_; leave of absence from commons, given to a student in the English universities.--_Gradus ad Cantab._ ACADEMIAN. A member of an academy; a student in a university or college. ACADEMIC. A student in a college or university. A young _academic_ coming into the country immediately after this great competition, &c.--_Forby's Vocabulary_, under _Pin-basket_. A young _academic_ shall dwell upon a journal that treats of trade, and be lavish in the praise of the author; while persons skilled in those subjects hear the tattle with contempt.--_Watts's Improvement of the Mind_. ACADEMICALS. In the English universities, the dress peculiar to the students and officers. I must insist on your going to your College and putting on your _academicals_.--_The Etonian_, Vol. II. p. 382. The Proctor makes a claim of 6s. 8d. on every undergraduate whom he finds _inermem_, or without his _academicals_.--_Gradus ad Cantab._, p. 8. If you say you are going for a walk, or if it appears likely, from the time and place, you are allowed to pass, otherwise you may be sent back to college to put on your _academicals_.--_Collegian's Guide_, p. 177. ACKNOWLEDGMENT. At Harvard College, every student admitted upon examination, after giving a bond for the payment of all college dues, according to the established laws and customs, is required to sign the following _acknowledgment_, as it is called:--"I acknowledge that, having been admitted to the University at Cambridge, I am subject to its laws." Thereupon he receives from the President a copy of the laws which he has promised to obey.--_Laws Univ. of Cam., Mass._, 1848, p. 13. ACT. In English universities, a thesis maintained in public by a candidate for a degree, or to show the proficiency of a student.--_Webster_. The student proposes certain questions to the presiding officer of the schools, who then nominates other students to oppose him. The discussion is syllogistical and in Latin and terminates by the presiding officer questioning the respondent, or person who is said _to keep the act_, and his opponents, and dismissing them with some remarks upon their respective merits.--_Brande_. The effect of practice in such matters may be illustrated by the habit of conversing in Latin, which German students do much more readily than English, simply because the former practise it, and hold public disputes in Latin, while the latter have long left off "_keeping Acts_," as the old public discussions required of candidates for a degree used to be called.--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 184. The word was formerly used in Harvard College. In the "Orders of the Overseers," May 6th, 1650, is the following: "Such that expect to proceed Masters of Arts [are ordered] to exhibit their synopsis of _acts_ required by the laws of the College."--_Quincy's Hist. Harv. Univ._, Vol. I. p. 518.