These words refer to someone involved in studies, in attempting to gain a set of skills, or in devotion to a patron or master. Student is the most general word here for any such person. At its most specific, it forms a complementary pair with pupil . The latter now usually refer to a young person in primary or secondary school, while student , in this context, refers to one in a university or technical college. Whereas pupil itself has few uses outside this situation, student can displace pupil on the one hand and refer on the other to the most advanced or specialized expert or authority in some field: a musicologist who was a keen student of Beethoven’s later work.

Scholar can function as a more formal substitute for student, but the word is unique in having two special areas of relevance. Scholar may be used at any level for student who continues with, and usually excels in, his studies: an unruly child who nevertheless turned out to be a real scholar . More often, the word refers specifically to an advanced specialist, without any suggestion that the person is still pursuing a course of formal education; the word, in fact, may suggest an extremely learned authority on a given subject: scholars who were able to test the theory by collating all existing copies of the folio text of the play. Learner is much more informal than scholar and emphasizes the other extreme ?a beginner rather than an authority in some field of knowledge. Furthermore, the word applies less to youngsters than to adults who are purposely acquiring some new set of possibly simple skills. The situation pertains not so much to someone seeking formal education as to any sort of novice or beginner: insisting that she have a learner’s permit before he attempted to teach her how to drive; a learner in a shearing shed.

Disciple and protégé both pertain exclusively to someone devoted to a master or patron. Most strictly, disciple suggests a religious situation: the disciples of Buddha who codified his writings; the twelve disciples of Christ. In general use, the word refers to someone’s ardent advocacy of any prominent figure or theory: an early disciple of Freud, though never of Freudianism per se. Often, the word has a contemptuous ring to it, suggesting someone subordinate or unimportant in himself, possibly because of his slavish devotion to or imitation of another: teenagers who become overnight disciples of the newest singing sensation; business executives who pick yes-men to be their disciples . Protégé indicates a situation in striking contrast to disciple . Here, a young or unknown person of talent is assisted or patronized by someone else who is securely established, either as an artist or merely as a person of financial means: a wealthy benefactor who demanded nothing whatsoever in return for the money he spent on his protégés ; a master sculptor who, seeing the boy’s talent, took him on as a protégé . The word can have a contemptuous ting to it, like disciple . In this case it may suggest even greater servility in the subordinate but adds to this suggestion of over-weaning vanity in the superior or benefactor; the word can even be a euphemism for a paid mistress or lover, particularly one younger than the benefactor.