#1 What is a Student-athlete? What is a student-athlete? Student. Athlete. “Student” comes from its two Latin words of origin; the verb studere , or applying oneself, and the noun studium , a painstaking application. The word “student” was created in the English language to literally mean “a painstaking application of oneself”. In fact, the great philosopher Plato went as far as to say that “to learn is to suffer.” In many ways Plato was correct in that the byproduct of learning is most times a form of individual suffering. The practical meaning of student as defined in the English dictionary is “a person who is studying at a school or college”. The verb studying being heavily influenced by the verb studere . “Athlete”, on the other hand, comes from the Greek word athlon , or prize. Athlon is the root of the verb athlien , or to compete for a prize. These Greek phrases are most famously known in the context of the early Olympics held in Greece where ...