scholar

English

Etymology

From Middle English scolar, scolare, scoler, scolere (also scholer), from Old English scōlere (“scholar, learner”), from Late Latin scholāris, from schola (“school”), from Ancient Greek σχολή (skholḗ, “spare time, leisure", later, "conversations and the knowledge gained through them during free time; the places where these conversations took place”), equivalent to school +‎ -ar. Compare Saterland Frisian Sköiler, Middle Low German schö̂lære, schö̂lere, schö̂ler (> modern German Low German Schöler), Dutch scholier, German Schüler. Doublet of escolar.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈskɒlə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈskɑlɚ/
• Rhymes: -ɒlə(ɹ)

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

Noun

scholar (plural scholars)

1. A student; one who studies at school or college, typically having a scholarship.

   Synonyms: student, pupil

2. A specialist in a particular branch of knowledge.

   Synonyms: expert, specialist

3. A learned person; a bookman.

   Synonyms: academic, learned person, savant, scholarly person, erudite

   • 2013 September-October, Henry Petroski, “The Evolution of Eyeglasses”, in American Scientist:

     The ability of a segment of a glass sphere to magnify whatever is placed before it was known around the year 1000, when the spherical segment was called a reading stone, […] . Scribes, illuminators, and scholars held such stones directly over manuscript pages as an aid in seeing what was being written, drawn, or read.

4. (Singapore) Someone who received a prestigious scholarship.

Derived terms

• choral scholar
• day-scholar
• gentleman and scholar
• independent scholar
• nonscholar
• organ scholar
• Oxford scholar
• scholar and gentleman
• scholaress
• Scholar Green
• scholarism
• scholarless
• scholarlike
• scholarly
• scholar's gown
• scholarship
• scholar's mate
• visiting scholar

 

Related terms

• scholiast

Translations

a student; one who studies at school or college, typically having a scholarship

• Albanian: dijës (sq) m
• Bulgarian: стипендиант m (stipendiant)
• Catalan: estudiant (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 學生／学生 (zh) (xuéshēng)

• Finnish: opiskelija (fi)
• French: étudiant (fr) m
• German: Student (de) m, Schüler (de) m, Schülerin (de) f, Studentin (de) f
• Japanese: 学生 (ja) (がくせい, gakusei)
• Korean: 학생 (ko) (haksaeng)
• Polish: stypendysta (pl) m, stypendystka (pl) f
• Portuguese: bolsista, bolseiro m, bolseira f
• Russian: уча́щийся (ru) m (učáščijsja), учени́к (ru) m (učeník), студе́нт (ru) m (studént)
• Swedish: stipendiat (sv) c
• Tagalog: paaralin
• Vietnamese: học sinh (vi)

specialist in a particular branch of knowledge

• Albanian: dijës (sq) m
• Arabic: عَالِم (ar) m (ʕālim)

  Egyptian Arabic: عالم m (ʕālim)

• Armenian: գիտնական (hy) (gitnakan)
• Bulgarian: специалист (bg) m (specialist)
• Catalan: estudiós m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 學者／学者 (zh) (xuézhě)

• Czech: učenec (cs) m
• Dutch: geleerde (nl) m
• Esperanto: erudiciulo, erudiciulino
• Finnish: tiedemies (fi)
• French: expert (fr) m, spécialiste (fr) m or f
• Friulian: scuelâr m
• German: Gelehrter (de) m
• Greek: λόγιος (el) m (lógios)
• Hungarian: tudós (hu)
• Italian: studioso (it) m, erudito (it) m, dotto (it) m, accademico (it) m, letterato (it) m, ricercatore (it) m
• Japanese: 学者 (ja) (がくしゃ, gakusha)
• Latvian: zinātnieks m, zinātniece f
• Malayalam: പണ്ഡിതൻ (ml) m (paṇḍitaṉ), വിദഗ്ദ്ധൻ m (vidagddhaṉ), വിദ്വാൻ (ml) m (vidvāṉ)
• Pashto: پوهاند (ps) m (pohānd)
• Polish: uczony (pl) m, uczona (pl) f
• Portuguese: erudito (pt) m, especialista (pt), acadêmico (pt) m, estudioso (pt) m
• Romanian: învățat (ro) m, erudit (ro) m, savant (ro) m
• Russian: учёный (ru) m (učónyj), специали́ст (ru) m (specialíst)
• Sanskrit: पण्डित (sa) m (paṇḍita)
• Scottish Gaelic: sgoilear m, eòlaiche m
• Spanish: erudito (es) m, especialista (es), estudioso (es) m, docto (es) m, sabio (es) m
• Swahili: mwanachuoni
• Swedish: forskare (sv) c
• Tagalog: palaaral
• Turkish: bilgin (tr)
• Yiddish: חכם m (khokhem)

learned person

• Arabic: عَالِم (ar) m (ʕālim)
• Bulgarian: учен (bg) m (učen)
• Catalan: erudit (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Dutch: geleerde (nl) m
• Finnish: oppinut (fi)
• French: savant (fr) m, érudit (fr) m, intellectuel (fr) m
• German: Gelehrter (de) m
• Indonesian: sarjana (id), cendekiawan (id)
• Italian: erudito (it), dotto (it)
• Japanese: 学識者 (がくしきしゃ, gakushikisha), 識者 (しきしゃ, shikisha)
• Javanese: pandhita (jv)
• Kituba: kizabi
• Malayalam: പണ്ഡിതൻ (ml) m (paṇḍitaṉ)
• Polish: uczony (pl) m, uczona (pl) f
• Portuguese: erudito (pt) m, douto (pt) m
• Russian: знато́к (ru) m (znatók), экспе́рт (ru) m (ekspért)
• Sanskrit: पण्डित (sa) m (paṇḍita)
• Spanish: erudito (es) m, docto (es) m, sabio (es) m
• Swahili: mwanachuoni
• Tagalog: pantas (tl), paham
• Turkish: âlim (tr)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Telugu: ^{(please verify)} పండితుడు (te) m (paṇḍituḍu), ^{(please verify)} పండితురాలు f (paṇḍiturālu)

See also

• savant
• scholarch
• Thesaurus:humanities scholar

Further reading

• “scholar”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “scholar”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “scholar”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “scholar”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “scholar”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.

Anagrams

• chorals, lorchas, orchals