members of the ancient "learned professions."

Them'd be *learnéd professionals, Geoff. And I disagree that the term has become meaningless. Call learnéd professional a retronym, if you will. To me, a professional is someone who gets paid to do something others often do for free or the love (amateur) of doing it. You rarely hear of professional garbage collectors (dustmen) because nobody would do that simply for the love of the job. Professional tennis players, yes, because many do it simply for the love of the sport.

My pululation and micturation on the word professional is in the opposite direction. That would be saying that minor league baseball players, e.g., are *not professional.