Don (academia)

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A don is an academic, particularly in British English. The term is particularly applied to fellows and tutors of colleges at traditional collegiate universities but is also used more generally for teaching staff at universities and colleges. The usage is also found in Canada and in rare instances in the United States. Like the term don used for Roman Catholic priests, the term don derives from the Latin dominus, meaning "lord", and is a historical remnant of Oxford and Cambridge having started as ecclesiastical institutions in the Middle Ages. The term don is also used for schoolmasters at Winchester College, where as well as the term generally meaning "teacher", there are also "Div Dons", form masters, and "House Dons", housemasters; and at Radley College, another boys-only boarding school modelled after Oxford colleges of the early 19th century. At some universities in Canada, such as the University of King's College and the University of New Brunswick, a don is the senior head of a...

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