Translating “scholar in residence”

Question

I’m looking for a Classical Latin translation of “scholar in residence,” like at a university. Google translate says “scholar in residentiae,” but I want to make sure this is correct. Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Oxford uses socius for 'fellow' (as in an academic member of a college), which more generally means something like 'partner' or 'member' (of an institution).

This suggests something like socius academicus, although academicus would have particular connotations (of association with the Greek philosophers) to a Classical Roman.

Answer 2

Although the word "residence" seems to come from the Latin verb residere, it is not very appropriate for translation — it is "to remain sitting" and related things. More suitable verbs for residing would be habitare or incolere, and perhaps something that I fail to remember now.

I don't think there's a good universal Latin translation for "scholar". The best fit I could come up with is scholasticus. Depending on the field, perhaps philologus or artifex or scrutator could be a better fit.

With these elements, I'd suggest scholasticus incolens, which is literally something like "dwelling learned man". It depends on details whether this fits your case, but I couldn't think of anything better in general. I should mention that the words I used are classical, but I am not aware of the Romans having the concept. Therefore my translation is built from classical elements but perhaps not fully classical.

If you want to learn about the nuances of the words I suggested, I recommend taking a look at any of the many online Latin dictionaries.

The Google suggestion scholar in residentiae is horrible. The first word is untranslated, and the word "residence" ends up in the wrong case — and at least classically the word choice is wrong too. Google Translate is very unreliable with Latin.

Answer 3

A scholar is a homo doctus (in the sense of a learned person). If you know that the person is a man or woman, you can also say:

• vir doctus (male)
• femina docta (female)

These forms do not necessarily refer to a person who has had a formal academic career, but neither does the English word “scholar,” I suppose. Homo doctus and vir doctus are attested from classical antiquity, but femina docta is not really. It is a well-known expression nevertheless, probably dating back to the renaissance age. (The ancients did have the concept of the puella docta—learned girl—but she was not a scholar but a lover, all the more attractive for her erudition and her appreciation of poetry, or so felt at least the poets who sang her praises.)

The designation “scholar in residence” can mean many things, but usually the person works at an institution for a limited time, so while they are not a “visting scholar,” they are a scholar who visits. Therefore I would suggest

• homo doctus hospitans

The form hostpitans is the same for male and female. Multiple scholars in residence would be homines/viri docti hospitantes or feminae doctae hospitantes.