profess

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English professen,^[2][3] which the dictionaries explain in several ways.^[4][5][6] The revised OED takes it as borrowed from Anglo-Norman professer, recorded as a past participle, "admitted into a religious order", in the late 13th or early 14th century, and its source borrowed from Latin profiteor (“to state openly, declare, avow”).^[4] The Merriam-Webster Unabridged, Klein, Skeat and the Shorter Oxford start from the participle professed, which goes back to Old French profes (“that has taken a religious vow”), from Latin professus, with the later senses coming straight from Latin;^[5][7][8][9] the Middle English Dictionary, the American Heritage Dictionary and Etymonline also name Medieval Latin professō.^[2][3][6] Etymonline and Barnhart also allow for a back-formation from profession.^[6][10] The Latin verb is formed from prō- (“forth, in public”) and fateor (“to acknowledge, confess”),^[4][11][6] which also gave confess and is related to fable, fame and fate.^[11] Etymonline connects it with for (“to speak”) and Proto-Indo-European *bha- (“to speak, tell, say”).^[6] Compare Spanish profesar, Italian professare and French professer, the French verb being recorded only from 1584.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

To be professed, to have taken the vows of a religious order: William of Shoreham's poems, written before 1333 and in a manuscript of about 1350,^[4][10] while Etymonline says early 14th century.^[6] The Anglo-Norman verb had the same use in the early 14th century, alongside to declare one's faith and to dedicate oneself.^[12] Two older words from the Latin participle died out: a noun profess, the declaration made on entering a religious order, from about 1325 to 1450, and an adjective profess, professed, from 1340 to 1896.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Weekley says that before 1500 the word had only its religious sense,^[13] and the Latin verb had already taken up the taking of vows, in Augustine.^[4] The admission of a person into an order is recorded from about 1430.^[4] Barnhart treats the sense of declaring openly, recorded from 1526, as a direct borrowing of the Latin sense,^[10][6] and finds to lay claim to in Palsgrave's dictionary of 1530,^[10][4] a sense that has often implied insincerity.^[4][14] To declare one's faith in a religion or principle followed in 1549.^[4][9] A separate line comes from the Latin verb's sense "to teach": to teach a subject as a professor is recorded from about 1532,^[4] and Johnson (1755) still defined the verb as to declare in public one's skill in an art or science so as to invite work.^[15] Ayto explains professor as someone who publicly claims knowledge of a field and profession as the activity in which someone claims a skill.^[11] Shakespeare's Julius Caesar has it for making protestations of friendship, a use last recorded in 1849.^[4][9]

Timeline

• c. 1350 – in the passive, to have taken religious vows; the text was written before 1333.^[4][10]
• c. 1430 – to admit someone into a religious order (until 1886).^[4]
• 1463 – to undertake to do something (until 1678).^[4]
• c. 1510 – to take religious vows.^[4]
• 1526 – to declare oneself to be something.^[4][10]
• 1530 – to lay claim to something, often insincerely.^[4][10]
• c. 1532 – to teach a subject as a professor.^[4]
• 1542 – to declare or avow something.^[4]
• 1549 – to affirm one's faith in a religion or principle.^[4]
• before 1600 – to act as a professor.^[4]
• before 1616 – to make protestations of friendship (until 1849).^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To declare or affirm openly: She professed her surprise at the news.^[14][5][4]
2. To claim, often falsely or insincerely, to have a feeling or skill or to be or do something: He professes to be an expert sailor.^[14][4][9]
3. To affirm one's faith in or allegiance to a religion or principle: The community professes Buddhism.^[14][4][9]
4. To receive someone into a religious community on taking vows, or to take such vows.^[14][5][4]
5. To teach a subject as a professor, or to work as one.^[4][9]
6. To make protestations of friendship (obsolete, before 1616–1849).^[4][9]

Word family

• professedly
• unprofessing

Related words

• profession
• professor
• confess
• fable
• fame
• fate

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
11. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
12. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
13. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.