faculty

== English == === Etymology === From Middle English faculte (“power, property”), from Old French faculte, from Latin facultas (“capability, ability, skill, abundance, plenty, stock, goods, property; in Medieval Latin also a body of teachers”), another form of facilitas (“easiness, facility, etc.”), from facul, another form of facilis (“easy, facile”); see facile. Doublet of facility. === Pronunciation === (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA(key): /ˈfæk.əl.ti/ === Noun === faculty (plural faculties) (chiefly Canada, US, Philippines) The academic staff at schools, colleges, universities or not-for-profit research institutes, as opposed to the students or support staff. A division of a university. (Often in the plural): An ability, power, or skill. 1624, John Donne, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, Meditation XVIII., in The Complete Poetry and Selected Prose of John Donne, ed. Charles M. Coffin, New York: Modern Library (1952), pp. 442-444: If I will aske meere Philosophers, what the soule is, I shall finde amongst them, that will tell me, it is nothing, but the temperament and harmony, and just and equall composition of the Elements in the body, which produces all those faculties which we ascribe to the soule […] An authority, power, or privilege conferred by a higher authority. (Church of England) A licence to make alterations to a church. The members of a profession. ==== Usage notes ==== In the sense of academic staff at a university, academic staff, teaching staff or simply staff are preferred in British English. ==== Synonyms ==== See also Thesaurus:faculty ==== Derived terms ==== ==== Related terms ==== facultative ==== Translations ==== ==== Further reading ==== “faculty”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC. William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin Eli Smith, editors (1895–1910), “faculty”, in The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia: […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.