Classman

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A male pupil attending a specific grade or year in an educational setting An individual recognized as part of a cohort of students in a similar academic phase at a school or university A student categorized by their enrollment in a particular academic level alongside fellow classmates
2. A male student enrolled in a specific grade or year within an educational institution
3. A boy or young man who shares the same academic level with peers at school or college

Etymology: Classman is a plain compound: "class" with "-man" added, meaning a fellow male student who shares your year or form. The "class" half is the older sense, a group of students taught together, which English borrowed from Latin "classis" (a division of the Roman people, or a fleet). The "-man" half is the ordinary word for a male person, so the whole term simply means a man in your class. The word is most at home in American English, where the schools and colleges that used it were often divided by year and by sex. Its meaning rests entirely on those two parts: "class" supplies the group of students and "man" marks the sex of the member. Nothing more unusual sits behind it.

Synonyms: classmate, fellow student, peer, schoolmate, co-student