Amy Jungwirth, age 12, of Wietumpka, Alabama, for her question:

How did the term Bachelor of Arts originate?

This term originated in olden times, when art referred to academic studies that required study and disciplines. In those days, the main university subjects were literature and poetry, grammar and logic, mathematics and perhaps some simple science. The origin of the bachelor part of the term is more mysterious. However, those university students lived by very strict rules, one of which forbade undergraduates to marry.   

 A big dictionary traces the word "bachelor" back to a tenant farmer or young squire in the service of a lord. Such young men were unmarried because they were too poor to afford wife and family. Another reference traces the bachelor of arts back through baccalaureate and bacca lauri to a member of the laurel plant family.