There are some derivations ascribed to the word universitas as relating to universal knowledge, but I doubt them.
"Memoirs of James Robert Hope-Scott, Volume 2"
Robert Ornsby
The book has about 400 folio pages very closely packed with type, besides an alphabetical index full of Hebrew and Greek derivations of its names-"Gnothisauton," "Achamoth," "Ametameletus," "Dogmapernes," and so forth.
"The English Novel"
George Saintsbury
Perhaps both derivations conspired: the word whiggamor, said to be a word of command to the horses, might contract into whig, and the contraction might be welcomed for its own native meaning.
"A Budget of Paradoxes, Volume II (of II)"
Augustus de Morgan