Other forms: diplomas
A diploma is the piece of paper that proves you finished a course — your name printed across it, the date, a signature at the bottom. It is the thing people frame for the hallway, or leave rolled up in a drawer for thirty years.
It also names the course itself, one step below a degree: a diploma in nursing, a two-year diploma in graphic design, a postgraduate diploma. In the United States a high school diploma is what you leave school with at eighteen; in Britain that document is called a certificate. Diplomat and diplomatic belong to the same family, from the same folded official page. A diploma is not a degree, and calling it one will get you corrected. You take, earn or are awarded a diploma — you do not win one.
1noundiplomaAn official document showing that a course of study has been completed.
“His diploma hung in the hallway in a cheap black frame.”
synonyms: certificate
2nounbelowA course of study below the level of a degree, and the qualification it gives.
“She finished a two-year diploma in graphic design before applying for work.”
diploma is an official document.
Also accepted in games: certificate
The Greek δίπλωμα meant a folded paper, and a licence, from διπλόω, to fold over, and διπλόος, double. Latin took it as diplōma: the official document, doubled over on itself. The word for the person who carried such papers, the diplomat, comes from the same fold.
Proto-Indo-European
*dwóh₁
Ancient Greek
δίπλωμα — folded paper, license
Latin
diplōma
English, today
diploma
Built from
From Latin diplōma, from Ancient Greek δίπλωμα (“folded paper, license”), from διπλόω (“to double, fold over”), from διπλόος (“double”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA