pundit

pundit
    n 1: someone who has been admitted to membership in a scholarly
         field [syn: {initiate}, {learned person}, {pundit},
         {savant}]
    

Pundit \Pun"dit\, n. [Hind. pandit, Skr. pandita a learned man.]
   A learned man; a teacher; esp., a Brahman versed in the
   Sanskrit language, and in the science, laws, and religion of
   the Hindoos; in Cashmere, any clerk or native official.
   [Written also {pandit}.] [India]
   [1913 Webster]
    

84 Moby Thesaurus words for "pundit":
      Brahman, Ramwat, abecedarian, academician, aficionado, amateur,
      authority, bairagi, bashara, bhikhari, bhikshu, bookman, buff,
      certified teacher, classicist, clerk, colossus of knowledge,
      connoisseur, critic, dilettante, docent, doctor, dominie, don,
      educationist, educator, expert, fan, fellow, freak, genius,
      giant of learning, guide, guru, humanist, instructor,
      learned clerk, learned man, literary man, litterateur,
      lover of learning, maestro, man of learning, man of letters,
      master, mastermind, melamed, mentor, mine of information, mullah,
      nut, pandit, pedagogist, pedagogue, philologist, philologue,
      philomath, philosophe, philosopher, polyhistor, polymath,
      preceptor, professor, pujari, purohit, rabbi, sannyasi, savant,
      scholar, scholastic, schoolkeeper, schoolman, schoolmaster,
      schoolteacher, specialist, starets, student, teacher,
      technical expert, technician, vairagi, walking encyclopedia, yogi,
      yogin