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OP
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I've heard the term, "Professional" used frequently in ways that seem, well, unprofessional of late. Having been a curmudgeon since age four, I still think that the only people who get to apply the term to themselves are physicians, lawyers, and clerics, i.e. members of the ancient "learned professions." How do you people now use it, both as a noun and as an adjective?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Dear Geoff: my dictionary says: a vocation or occupation requiring advanced education and training, and involving intellectual skills, as medicine, law, theology, engineering, teaching, etc.
I have seen in print claims that practitioners of commercial sex were the earliest, that money changing was the earliest.
The dictionary definition above fails to list many that are now recognized, from soldier all the way to IT consultant. Anyone with special skill and knowledge is entitled to be called a professional - even gamblers.
Excluding only the amateurs and dilettantes, who do not earn their living from their knowledge.
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veteran
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veteran
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Dr. Bill and Geoff have both stated correct meanings for the term. Not surprisingly, there is more than one meaning. There is the old, narrow meaning which Geoff alludes to, but there is the meaning of someone who does for money, or for a living, what others do for amusement or pro bono publico. There are professional gamblers and there are those who play penny-ante poker every 3rd Wednesday evening. And whereas it was originally an honorable term, it can now take on a distinctly nasty connotation, as in the expression "professional do-gooder".
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Geoff's example referred to the limited definition as including "physicians, lawyers, and clerics".
Question: I seem to recall that at university graduation ceremonies, doctoral robes are worn not only by the newly minted PhD's, but by others whose, such as M.D.'s and J.D.'s, whose degree required three or more post-graduate years. Could it be that limited meaning of "professional" is (or at one time was) tied to that three-year marker, referring to those who held a 3+ year post-grad degree in their field?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Geoff, other shadings of both the adj. and n. are nothing new. referring to means of livelihood and to non-amateurs in sports, for instance, both trace to the 1800s. disparaging usage also shows up in this period. 1887 Pall Mall G. 11 Feb. 4/2 Ladies raised+to the now extinct position of ‘professional beauty’. [extinct??] 1879 Cornh. Mag. Oct. 414 It is one of the misfortunes of the professional Don Juan that his honour forbids him to refuse battle.
I was surprised to learn that the first attested sense of profession/professional pertains to entrance into a religious order. I can quote chapter and verse of all senses if you like....
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Carpal Tunnel
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In many US corporations, "professional" is used to define behavour. proessional behaviour is unemotional.. there have been studies about women, who find there work life, so much more rewarding than home life, since at work, they are un emotional.
feeling-- joy, happiness, anger, sadness, grief,-- all take energy. Work doesn't require this. at work, if some one is unable to do a job, you let them go.. no anger, no sadness, just professional. How simple.
At home, what do you do with an aging parent, or a chronicly sick child? You can't cut them loose!
at times, the "professionalism" of the office is callousness.
i agree that i don't want people i buy services from to be rude, but, the other extreme is a "canned smile" and empty phrases.. which is, in some ways, just as unpleasant.
i some times think one of the reasons lawyers are so hated, is they are masters at this sort of professionalism-- they know all the facts, but remain detached. Being detached lets them do their job, but for the client, it sometimes comes across as cold, hard heartedness.. (and gee whiz, is that just the reputation lawyers have!)
there is a natural tendency for humans to share emotions as way to become close (it functions as our mutual grooming) when the process is one way-- it causes problems.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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As used on this rock, "professional" is a class distinction on the labor market. "Young professional" designates one whose compensation is determined on the basis of the expectation that one's skills and experience will someday be commensurate with it. The designation "professional" is a kind of royal jelly of the labor market.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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In reply to:
I was surprised to learn that the first attested sense of profession/professional pertains to entrance into a religious order.
Which reminds me of the confusion I felt when I first read Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" with his references to professors. It took a while to realise he meant people who professed an opinion they didn't really hold rather than a blanket condemnation of academics.
Bingley
Bingley
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The term "professional" seems to have suffered so badly from over-use (inflation, in advertising etc.) that its depth of meaning is approaching zero, just about like "philosophy".
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I agree with wsieber - the word has become so commonplace as to be meaningless. There's hardly an advertisement for any sort of service these days that doesn't claim things like, "..have your carpet professioanlly installed", "...your car professionally detailed" etc.
In my cynicism, all I hear when listening to these adverts is that the person providing the service will do a better job merely because they are being paid!!
For this reason the word has been banished from the stales vocabulary.
stales
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