professor

Forms

professor m (plural professores, feminine professora, feminine plural professoras)^[1] 15th-century texts have the plurals professorees and profesores.^[2] Dialect speech in Portugal has prefessor and pressor.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin professor (“one who professes an art; a teacher”), a learned word first recorded in the 15th century.^[2][4][5][1] The Latin noun is formed on professus, the past participle of profiteor (“to declare publicly; to profess; to teach”).^[2][6][1] Nascentes explains it as “one who declares his knowledge before others”.^[5] In Latin it is found after the Augustan age, of public teachers of rhetoric, grammar and the arts.^[7]

Cunha lists the word under the verb professar, which has the same Latin root.^[4] The same word is Galician profesor.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's first sense is “one who professes a creed or a religion”.^[2] A Galician document of 1454 calls a priest professor e prior, in the religious sense.^[9][2]

Semantic evolution

Pereira's Thesouro (1697) has professor, ou professora, with Latin profitens.^[10] Bluteau defines the professor as one who teaches an art or science in public, such as rhetoric or philosophy.^[11] Morais (1789) still gives first the member of an order of knighthood who has made his profession, and then the teacher of an art or science.^[12]

The word now means any teacher, from a primary school to a university, and figuratively an expert.^[2][13] In Portugal it is also a title of university teachers with a doctorate.^[14] The word passed into Kabuverdianu as profesor.^[1]

Timeline

• 15th century – first record, with the plurals professorees and profesores.^[2][4]
• 1454 – professor e prior in a Galician document.^[9]
• 1697 – Pereira enters professor, ou professora.^[10]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau defines it as a public teacher of an art or science.^[11]
• 1789 – Morais gives the religious and the teaching senses.^[12]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira's dictionary defines it as a man who teaches letters, a science or an art.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. A teacher in a school, college or university: a professora de português.^[2][16][1]
2. Anyone who teaches a subject or skill: professor de natação.^[2][16]
3. A person who has the diploma of a teacher-training course.^[2]
4. (figurative) An expert, someone highly skilled in something.^[2][13]
5. One who professes a religion or publicly teaches its truths.^[2][13]
6. (Portugal) A university teacher holding a doctorate; a holder of a chair.^[14]
7. A player in a first-rank orchestra.^[16]

Adjective

1. That professes (a faith).^[2]
2. That teaches, or holds the title of teacher.^[2][16]

Word family

• professorado
• professorar
• professorinho

Related words

• professo
• professar
• profissão

Usage notes

Brazilian universities have the ranks professor auxiliar de ensino, professor assistente, professor adjunto and professor titular; the professor catedrático held a chair until the university reform of 1968.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. professor
3. ^ Instituto da Lingua Galega, Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (TLPGP), Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/tesouro, p. s.v. professor
4. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. professar
5. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. professor
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. professor
7. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. professor
8. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. professor
9. ^ a b Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. professor
10. ^ a b Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. professor
11. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. professor
12. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 249
13. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. professor
14. ^ a b Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. professor
15. ^ Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 4, 960
16. ^ a b c d Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. professor