Schoolchildren

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Young people who go to school for education
2. Individuals who are enrolled in and regularly attend classes at a school
3. Children who participate in formal learning within an educational institution

Etymology: "Schoolchildren" is simply the plural of "schoolchild", a compound of two very old English words. "School" came into Old English from Latin "schola", itself borrowed from Greek "scholē", which originally meant "leisure" or "spare time": the idea was that learning was what free people did when they were not occupied with work. "Child" is an inherited Germanic word with a far older pedigree, going back to Old English "cild". Put together, "schoolchild" is a plain descriptive compound with no special coinage behind it: a child who attends school. The plural simply adds the usual "-ren", the old plural ending that also survives in "children" itself, so the word has the same double plural marking that "oxen" and "brethren" once carried.

Synonyms: students, pupils, learners, scholars

Antonyms: dropouts, graduates, nonstudents