Origins
The word 'scholar' has been in English since the Old English period, attested around the year 1000 as 'scolere,' meaning 'one who attends a school, a student.' It comes from Medieval Latin 'scholāris' (belonging to a school, a student), an adjective formed from Latin 'schola' (school), itself borrowed from Greek 'skholḗ' (σχολή), meaning 'leisure, learned discussion.' The word thus shares its entire etymological ancestry with 'school': both trace back to the Greek idea that intellectual pursuit is the proper occupation of leisure.
In Old and Middle English, 'scholar' simply meant 'a student' — anyone who attended a school. This basic sense survives in the British term 'scholarship,' which originally meant (and still means, in one sense) a financial award enabling a student to attend school. Over the centuries, however, 'scholar' underwent a significant elevation of meaning, rising from 'school attendee' to 'learned person' to 'expert researcher in a specialized field.' Today, calling someone 'a scholar' implies mastery and distinction; calling them 'a student' implies they are still learning. The two words began as near-synonyms and diverged.
The Medieval Latin 'scholāris' belonged to a family of derivatives from 'schola.' 'Scholasticus' (scholarly, pertaining to schools) gave English 'scholastic,' which became the label for the dominant philosophical and theological method of medieval universities — Scholasticism, the tradition of Aquinas, Abelard, and Duns Scotus, characterized by rigorous dialectical reasoning applied to questions of theology and philosophy. 'Scholasticism' was not a compliment when later humanists and Enlightenment thinkers used it; they saw the medieval 'scholastics' as pedantic logic-choppers trapped in sterile debates. The shift from 'scholastic' as a term of prestige to one of mild disparagement mirrors broader changes in European intellectual culture.
Latin Roots
German preserves a distinction that English has largely lost. 'Schüler' (from the same Latin root as 'scholar') means a school pupil — a child or teenager in primary or secondary education. 'Student' (from Latin 'studēre,' to be eager) means a university student. In English, 'student' covers all educational levels, while 'scholar' has migrated upward to the rarefied air of specialized research. A Rhodes Scholar is not merely a student at Oxford; the title implies exceptional intellectual achievement.
The semantic elevation of 'scholar' has a parallel in the word 'doctor.' Latin 'doctor' simply meant 'teacher' (from 'docēre,' to teach). Over centuries, it rose from 'teacher' to 'holder of the highest university degree' to 'medical practitioner.' Similarly, 'scholar' rose from 'schoolchild' to 'learned expert.' Both words began in the classroom and climbed the ladder of prestige, leaving their original humble meanings behind.
The Greek root 'skholḗ' (leisure) that underlies both 'scholar' and 'school' carries a philosophical weight that the modern words have shed. For Aristotle, 'skholḗ' was not mere relaxation but the condition in which human beings could pursue their highest activity: theoretical contemplation. In the Nicomachean Ethics, he argues that the contemplative life is the best life precisely because it requires 'skholḗ' — freedom from practical necessity. The 'scholar,' in the deepest etymological sense, is not someone who works harder than others but someone who is free enough to think. The irony that modern scholars are among the hardest-working professionals in any society would not have been lost on Aristotle, who believed that the need to work was precisely what prevented most people from becoming scholars.