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Square academic cap
The square academic cap, graduate cap, cap, mortarboard (because of its similarity in appearance to the mortarboard used by brickmasons to hold mortar), or Oxford cap is an item of academic dress consisting of a horizontal square board fixed upon a skull-cap, with a tassel attached to the center. In the UK and the US, it is commonly referred to informally in conjunction with an academic gown as a "cap and gown". It is also sometimes termed a square, trencher, or corner-cap. The adjective academical is also used.
In previous centuries, academic dress was the everyday clothing of all students and faculty. The cap, together with the gown and sometimes a hood, now form the customary uniform of a university graduate in many parts of the world, following a British model. In other countries, especially the United States, mortarboards are only worn during the commencement ceremony itself.
The mortarboard likely originated in Italy, no later than 1520.
The mortarboard may have developed from the biretta, a similar-looking hat worn by Roman Catholic clergy. The biretta itself may have been a development of the Roman pileus quadratus, a type of skullcap with superposed square and tump (meaning small mound). A reinvention of this type of cap is known as the Bishop Andrewes cap. The Italian biretta is a word derived from the Medieval Latin birretum from the Late Latin birrus "large hooded cloak", which is perhaps of Gaulish origin, or from Ancient Greek πυρρός pyrrhos "flame-coloured, yellow".
Academic dress, including the mortarboard, spread across Europe, and in the late 19th century, from Britain to the Americas.
Tassels appeared in the 18th century; before then, the center of the mortarboard was decorated with a tuft.
In the UK, the tassel is shorter and is gathered at the button at the centre of the board. The US style is slightly longer, gathered at a cord attached to the button.
At the University of Cambridge, undergraduates by ancient convention used to cut their tassels very short so that the tassel does not extend beyond the edge of the board. After they graduated, they wore the square cap with the tassel at the normal length. This convention has now fallen into disuse; few people now wear headgear with academic dress at any time, and undergraduates in particular have no need to wear the cap.
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Square academic cap
The square academic cap, graduate cap, cap, mortarboard (because of its similarity in appearance to the mortarboard used by brickmasons to hold mortar), or Oxford cap is an item of academic dress consisting of a horizontal square board fixed upon a skull-cap, with a tassel attached to the center. In the UK and the US, it is commonly referred to informally in conjunction with an academic gown as a "cap and gown". It is also sometimes termed a square, trencher, or corner-cap. The adjective academical is also used.
In previous centuries, academic dress was the everyday clothing of all students and faculty. The cap, together with the gown and sometimes a hood, now form the customary uniform of a university graduate in many parts of the world, following a British model. In other countries, especially the United States, mortarboards are only worn during the commencement ceremony itself.
The mortarboard likely originated in Italy, no later than 1520.
The mortarboard may have developed from the biretta, a similar-looking hat worn by Roman Catholic clergy. The biretta itself may have been a development of the Roman pileus quadratus, a type of skullcap with superposed square and tump (meaning small mound). A reinvention of this type of cap is known as the Bishop Andrewes cap. The Italian biretta is a word derived from the Medieval Latin birretum from the Late Latin birrus "large hooded cloak", which is perhaps of Gaulish origin, or from Ancient Greek πυρρός pyrrhos "flame-coloured, yellow".
Academic dress, including the mortarboard, spread across Europe, and in the late 19th century, from Britain to the Americas.
Tassels appeared in the 18th century; before then, the center of the mortarboard was decorated with a tuft.
In the UK, the tassel is shorter and is gathered at the button at the centre of the board. The US style is slightly longer, gathered at a cord attached to the button.
At the University of Cambridge, undergraduates by ancient convention used to cut their tassels very short so that the tassel does not extend beyond the edge of the board. After they graduated, they wore the square cap with the tassel at the normal length. This convention has now fallen into disuse; few people now wear headgear with academic dress at any time, and undergraduates in particular have no need to wear the cap.
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