professional
/pɹəˈfeʃənəl/pruh-FEH-shuh-nuhl
/pɹəˈfɛʃənəl/pruh-FEH-shuh-nuhl
Meaningrelating to a profession
Common meaning: doing something as a paid job
Other meanings: skilled and businesslike
- proforward; forth
- fessto own up, admitLewis & Short, Latin Dictionary (1879), p. 728 · scan
- ionnoun ending: act or result
- aladjective ending: relating to
‘forward’ + ‘to own up, admit’ → professional
Journey through time
- Latinfateor, fassus‘to own up, admit’
- Frenchprofesser
- Old Frenchprofessource
- Englishprofess‘to declare openly’
- Englishformed in English from professprofession‘a job that needs special training’
- Englishformed in English from professionprofessional‘doing something as a paid job’ · today
Sources & notes
Meaning: “Meaning” is the sense that emerges from the word’s roots; “Common meaning” is today’s everyday sense. Both written by us.
Pronunciation
- UK IPA: converted from the US form by rule (unchecked). Respelling: generated.
- No UK recording; the speaker uses your device’s en-GB voice.
- US IPA: CMUdict (BSD-2), converted to IPA by rule. Respelling: generated.
- No US recording; the speaker uses your device’s en-US voice.
Origin: Formed in English from profession + -al.
Dictionary: Skeat (1898), PROFESS, p.469 · scan
Roots
- fateor, fassus Latin “to own up, admit”
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