académica

Académica is the feminine form of the adjective académico in Spanish and the feminine form of acadêmico in Portuguese. It is used to describe things related to the academy or to the world of higher education, and can function as both an adjective and a noun. As an adjective, it appears in phrases such as vida académica and carrera académica. As a noun, it denotes a female member of the academic world, such as a professor, researcher, or student affiliated with a university.

Etymology: the word derives from Latin academĭcus, which in turn comes from Greek Akadēmikós, from Akadēmía, the name of Plato’s school. The term spread through many languages to designate academies, scholarly activity, and the community of scholars.

Spanish usage: in Spanish, the masculine and feminine forms—académico and académica—are widely used to refer to scholars and their work. The feminine noun académica commonly denotes a female academic or a woman engaged in scholarly activity, while the adjective describes things associated with the scholarly world, such as la vida académica or la carrera académica.

Portuguese usage: in Portuguese, the feminine acadêmica mirrors acadêmico in form and can refer to a female student, researcher, or associate of an academic institution. It appears in expressions like vida académica and, in European Portuguese, ano académico, with the sense extending to activities and identities within universities and scholarly communities.

Across languages, académica connotes affiliation with higher education, research, and scholarly life, contrasted with non-academic or non-scholarly roles.