habilitation

From Latin habilitatio.

• IPA^(key): /həˌbɪlɪˈteɪʃən/

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• Rhymes: -eɪʃən

habilitation (countable and uncountable, plural habilitations)

1. Equipment; qualification.
   • 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of the True Greatness of Kingdoms and Estates”, in The Essayes , 3rd edition, London: Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC:

     For the things which we formerly have spoken of, are but habilitation arms: and what is habilitation without intention and act?

2. An act of habilitating.
3. An academic qualification, prerequiring a PhD, required in order to gain tenure as a professor in some European universities; a thesis or dissertation presented to achieve the qualification.
   • 1994, Robert J. Dostal, “The Experience of Truth for Gadamer and Heidegger: Taking Time and Sudden Lightning”, in Brice Wachterhauser, editor, Hermeneutics and Truth, page 60:

     At this same time Gadamer was at work on his habilitation with Heidegger. His habilitation, Plato's Dialectical Ethics, concerned Plato's understanding of the good, and its two leading concepts were dialogue and dialectic.

   • 1998, Joseph Ratzinger, Milestones: Memoirs, 1927-1977, unnumbered page:

     For one year it had been occupied by Otfried Müller, a priest from Silesia, who was trying simultaneously to advance the work for his habilitation—truly a difficult undertaking, considering the demands of teaching two core theological courses.

   • 1999, Robin D. Rollinger, Husserl's Position in the School of Brentano, page 139:

     In 1892 his dissertation on Descartes, Idee und Perception, appeared and was followed in 1894 by his habilitation thesis, Zur Lehre vom Inhalt und Gegenstand der Vorstellungen.

   • 2010, Peter Meusburger, Thomas Schuch, “From Mediocrity and Existential Crisis to Scientific Excellence: Heidelberg University Between 1803 and 1932”, in Peter Meusburger, David N. Livingstone, Heike Jöns, editors, Geographies of Science, page 79:

     In the period from 1803 to 1932 as a whole, professors of law were on average the youngest to complete their Habilitation (28.5 years), trailed by theologians (29.8 years) and natural scientists (29.8 years).

4. (US) The act of supplying money to work a mine.

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habilitation f (plural habilitations)

1. habilitation

• “habilitation”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.