student

[ stood-nt, styood- ]

noun

1. a person formally engaged in learning, especially one enrolled in a school or college; pupil:

   a student at Yale.

2. any person who studies, investigates, or examines thoughtfully:

   a student of human nature.

student

/ ˈstjuːdənt /

noun

1. 1. a person following a course of study, as in a school, college, university, etc
   2. ( as modifier )

      student teacher

2. a person who makes a thorough study of a subject

Pronunciation Note

See new.

Other Words From

• student·less adjective
• student·like adjective
• anti·student noun adjective
• non·student noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of student¹

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Latin student- (stem of studēns ), present participle of studēre “to take pains”; -ent; replacing Middle English studiant, aphetic variant of estudiant, from Old French, noun use of present participle of estudier “to devote oneself to, study” ( study

Word History and Origins

Origin of student¹

C15: from Latin studēns diligent, from studēre to be zealous; see study

Synonym Study

See pupil ¹.

Example Sentences

He said California law requires that school-age students receive education on the contributions of queer people and people of color, and Java’s “trailblazing fight for her labor rights” in the 1960s fits the requirement perfectly.

From Los Angeles Times

Hashini Perera, Ph.D. student and lead author of the study from the Advanced Technology Institute at the University of Surrey, said:

From Science Daily

“There’s a lot of great students that are also great athletes,” said Ted Donato, a former Harvard coach and briefly a Kings’ winger who has coached the Crimson since 2004.

From Los Angeles Times

Pregnant women, the disabled, students and a few other categories were exempt.

From Los Angeles Times

Brighten The Corners said students had a chance to learn about roles in the music and live events industries, including sound engineering, management and marketing.

From BBC

Related Words

• graduate
• junior
• pupil
• scholar
• undergraduate

More About Student

Where does student come from?

The word student entered English around 1350–1400. It ultimately derives from the Latin studēre. The meaning of this verb is one we think will resonate with a lot of actual students out there: “to take pains.” No, we’re not making this up: a student, etymologically speaking, can be understood a “pains-taker”!

In Latin, studēre had many other senses, though, and ones that some students may have a harder time relating to. Studēre could also mean “to desire, be eager for, be enthusiastic about, busy oneself with, apply oneself to, be diligent, pursue, study.” The underlying idea of student, then, is about striving—for new knowledge and abilities. It’s about that mix of hard work and passion. Isn’t that inspirational?

Dig deeper

We don’t think you have to be a student of etymology to make the connection between student and study. Like student, the verb study also comes from the Latin studēre. The noun study—as in The scientists conducted a sleep study or Her favorite room of her house is the study—is also related to studēre and is more immediately derived from the Latin noun studium, meaning “zeal, inclination,” among other senses.

 

But not all connections between words are so obvious. Consider student and tweezers. Would you have guessed this unlikely pair of words share a common root? Let’s, um, pick this apart.

Tweezers are small pincers or nippers for plucking our hairs, extracting splinters, picking up small objects, and so forth. The word entered English in the mid-1600s, based on tweeze, an obsolete noun meaning “case of surgical instruments,” which contained what we now call tweezers.

Losing its initial E along the way, tweeze comes from etweese, which is an English rendering of the French etui, a type of small case used to hold needles, cosmetic instruments, and the like. Etui can ultimately be traced back to the Latin stūdiāre, “to treat with care,” related to the same studēre. This is how student is related to, of all things, tweezers.

Did you know ... ?

For further study, explore the following words that share a root with student: 

• étude
• studio
• studious