per-student

The term "per-student" is a modern English compound adjective formed by combining the Latin preposition "per," meaning "through" or "by," with the noun "student." In Latin, "per" was used to denote agency or distribution, a sense preserved in English phrases like "per capita" (by heads). The word "student" derives from the Latin verb "studēre," meaning "to be zealous or eager," which evolved to signify one engaged in learning. The compound "per-student" logically applies this distributive sense of "per" to the unit of a learner, creating a term used primarily in administrative and financial contexts to denote metrics calculated for each individual enrolled in an educational institution.

Structure: per (through, by) + student (learner) - per: Latin origin, preposition meaning "through, by, by means of". In English, it functions as a prefix meaning "for each". - student: Latin origin, from the present participle of 'studēre' (to be eager, study). In English, it functions as a noun meaning "a person who is studying".