Academic

/ˌakəˈdemik/

adjective/noun

adjective

1. related to formal education

That I was not suited to commerce or academic study in no way proves that I should also be unfit to be a painter.

- Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890)

2. Focused on theoretical learning and scholarship rather than practical application

The most dangerous thing about an academic education is that it enables my tendency to over-intellectualize stuff, to get lost in abstract thinking instead of simply paying attention to what’s going on in front of me.

- David Foster Wallace (1962-2008)

noun

a person, such as a professor or researcher, who works in a college or academic institution

A literary academic can no more pass a bookstore than an alcoholic can pass a bar.

- Carolyn Gold Heilbrun (1916-2003)