Quick semantic question

What's the difference between the words "student" and "pupil"?

There were 253 students at the local high school.
There were 21 students in mr Baxter's English class.
But today, only 18 pupils attended the lesson.

Did I get that right?

Wow. I need to just learn Hebrew or something. Don't they only have something like 10,000 words total?

Can't wait to read the educated responses.

Liar said:

What's the difference between the words "student" and "pupil"?

There were 253 students at the local high school.
There were 21 students in mr Baxter's English class.
But today, only 18 pupils attended the lesson.

Did I get that right?

Click to expand...

Both are technically the same in a sense. Pupil is considered an "obsolete" or "antiquated" word now.

On several English Word Reference Forums, the following was used to describe the difference between Pupil vs Student.

All students are pupils; not all pupils are students. Students actually work at learning. Some pupils merely keep a seat warm.

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Here is what Dictionary.com says:

Student

stu⋅dent
  /ˈstudnt, ˈstyud-/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [stood-nt, styood-]
–noun
1. a person formally engaged in learning, esp. 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.

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pu·pil 1 (pyōō'pəl)
n.

1. A student under the direct supervision of a teacher or professor.
2. Law A minor under the supervision of a guardian.


[Middle English pupille, orphan, from Old French, from Latin pūpillus, diminutive of pūpus, boy.]

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Liar said:

What's the difference between the words "student" and "pupil"?

There were 253 students at the local high school.
There were 21 students in mr Baxter's English class.
But today, only 18 pupils attended the lesson.

Did I get that right?

Click to expand...

In NA, I always perceived a student as someone taught and a pupil one who wanted to learn.

Lauren is saying that the Portuguese equivalents of words mean: pupil, someone who attends school to be taught (up to and including high-school); student, someone who attends school to actively pursuit knowledge (higher education).

Our opinions are not the same. Sorry.

They're partly interchangeable, but pupil is more tied to children. You can say, for example, "Adler was a pupil of Freud," but more often, pupil won't be used for grown ups.

Student is a broader term, too, used not only for people enrolled in institutional education, but also wherever systematic interest is pursued, e.g. in phrases such as "a student of human nature".

From Merriam-Webster:

Main Entry: 1pu·pil
Pronunciation: \ˈpyü-pəl\
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English pupille minor ward, from Anglo-French, from Latin pupillus male ward (from diminutive of pupus boy) & pupilla female ward, from diminutive of pupa girl, doll
Date: 1536
1 : a child or young person in school or in the charge of a tutor or instructor : student
2 : one who has been taught or influenced by a famous or distinguished person

Main Entry: stu·dent
Pronunciation: \ˈstü-dənt, ˈstyü-, chiefly Southern -dənt\
Function: noun
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: Middle English, from Latin student-, studens, from present participle of studēre to study — more at study
Date: 14th century
1 : scholar, learner; especially : one who attends a school
2 : one who studies : an attentive and systematic observer <a student of politics>

I believe Verdad is correct. The difference is one of supervision and age.

When I was in school, all of us were pupils and none of us would have been called "student". That term was reserved for those at university studying a degree.

Even Further Education colleges had pupils.

However in the nearly 50 years since then, the term "student" has been devalued to include almost all schoolchildren. In the UK many educational terms have been changed for political "spin". An academy was a place that one entered after 18, not a failing school relaunched as an "academy" as if changing the name would solve the problems.

There were no "High" schools. We had grammar schools and secondary modern schools. Comprehensive schools were a new-fangled idea to combine all levels of ability on one site and save money. The comprehensives became "high" schools and grammar schools were abolished (except in right-wing holdouts such as parts of my county, Kent).

Now apart from the Grammar Schools we have several "High" schools, a Community College (which is a renamed not-so-good High School) and an Academy (which was the worst High School within a twenty-mile radius).

All the "pupils" are called "students". We also have a University and former Colleges which also have "students". We have adult education classes which have "students".

In our local papers if the term "student" is used without qualification then we understand "university student". If they mean someone under 18 attending a school of some sort they usually write "XX school/college/academy student".

"Student" used alone is usually preceeded by "drunken", "noisy", "rowdy" or followed by "problems".

My advice to the original post? Eschew "pupil".

Og

Alrighty. It seems unanymous then. Going with "student" all the way un-complicate things.

Thanks, anglo-saxons.

OGG is correct. Students attend college, pupils attend schools, and apprentices are trained by masters. You'd never call a college student a college pupil.

The etymology of pupil begins with Latin, then Old French. A pupil was a child, then an orphan, then a child-student.

Liar said:

What's the difference between the words "student" and "pupil"?

There were 253 students at the local high school.
There were 21 students in mr Baxter's English class.
But today, only 18 pupils attended the lesson.

Did I get that right?

Click to expand...

A pupil is a person who attends a school. A student is a person who studies. If a person is interested in a subject, that person can learn all about it by reading and the internet. This would make that person a student but, unless he or she was attending a school for the purpose, not a pupil.