scholar

scholar
    n 1: a learned person (especially in the humanities); someone
         who by long study has gained mastery in one or more
         disciplines [syn: {scholar}, {scholarly person}, {bookman},
         {student}]
    2: someone (especially a child) who learns (as from a teacher)
       or takes up knowledge or beliefs [syn: {learner}, {scholar},
       {assimilator}]
    3: a student who holds a scholarship
    

Scholar \Schol"ar\, n. [OE. scoler, AS. sc[=o]lere, fr. L.
   scholaris belonging to a school, fr. schola a school. See
   {School}.]
   1. One who attends a school; one who learns of a teacher; one
      under the tuition of a preceptor; a pupil; a disciple; a
      learner; a student.
      [1913 Webster]

            I am no breeching scholar in the schools. --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. One engaged in the pursuits of learning; a learned person;
      one versed in any branch, or in many branches, of
      knowledge; a person of high literary or scientific
      attainments; a savant. --Shak. Locke.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. A man of books. --Bacon.
      [1913 Webster]

   4. In English universities, an undergraduate who belongs to
      the foundation of a college, and receives support in part
      from its revenues.
      [1913 Webster]

   Syn: Pupil; learner; disciple.

   Usage: {Scholar}, {Pupil}. Scholar refers to the instruction,
          and pupil to the care and government, of a teacher. A
          scholar is one who is under instruction; a pupil is
          one who is under the immediate and personal care of an
          instructor; hence we speak of a bright scholar, and an
          obedient pupil.
          [1913 Webster]
    

98 Moby Thesaurus words for "scholar":
      academic, academician, aficionado, amateur, auditor, authority,
      autodidact, bookman, bookworm, brain, buff, classicist, clerk,
      colossus of knowledge, connoisseur, critic, dilettante, doctor,
      educatee, egghead, elder, elder statesman, experimental scientist,
      expert, fan, freak, genius, giant of learning, great soul, guru,
      highbrow, humanist, illuminate, inquirer, intellect, intellectual,
      learned clerk, learned man, learner, literary man, litterateur,
      longhair, lover of learning, lover of wisdom, mahatma,
      man of intellect, man of learning, man of letters, man of science,
      man of wisdom, mandarin, master, mastermind, mentor,
      mine of information, monitor, nut, oracle, pedagogue, philologist,
      philologue, philomath, philosophe, philosopher, polyhistor,
      polymath, practical scientist, praepostor, prefect, professor,
      pundit, pupil, rabbi, rishi, sage, sapient, savant, scholastic,
      schoolboy, schoolgirl, schoolman, scientist, seer,
      self-taught person, specialist, starets, student, studier, teacher,
      technical expert, technician, technologist, thinker, trainee,
      undergraduate, walking encyclopedia, wise man, wise old man