Meanings
plural demies
- colloquialcountableuncountableOne holding a demyship, a kind of scholarship for Magdalen College, Oxford.
1 more example
1781, Samuel Johnson, Addison, Lives of the Poets, 1840, Arthur Murphy (editor), The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL. D., Volume 2, page 132, […] by whose recommendations he was elected into Magdalen College as a demy; a term by which that society denominates those elsewhere called scholars, young men who partake of the founder's benefaction, and succeed in their order to vacant fellowships; […]
- countableuncountableJunior scholar, specifically at Magdalen College, Oxford.
William Lily was admitted as a dumy to Magdalen College, Oxford, by November 1486, at the age of seventeen
2013, Hedwig Gwosdek, “The grammar atttributed to William Lily”, in Lily's grammar of Latin in English : an introduction of the eyght partes of speche, and the construction of the same, Oxford: Oxford University Press, page 89
Origin
- Latindemi-socii“half-fellows”
- Englishdemy
* (scholarship): From Latin demi-socii (“half-fellows”); see socius.
More words from Latin
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
demy. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/demy
“demy.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/demy. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “demy,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/demy.
Source: demy on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.