Today I learned +

[MoonSong]

No because the bolded bit isn't true.

The term profession enters French from Latin meaning one essentially referring swearing an oath, and originally referred to professions where you had to do that - doctors and lawyers, for example.

But over time, it came to mean "any job which required extensive training over years" and where you were independent (again, doctors, lawyers, etc. are theoretically independent), and also specifically not involved in a craft or industry (because those were regarded as something different and lesser).

Then English nicked the term.

So nothing that is not:

A) Independent

B) Not involved in a craft or industry

and

C) Requires extensive training

Could be a profession in the true sense any time before like, the 20th century. Also money changers as an actual job appear much later than forms of currency. So they wouldn't even be near the beginning even if we back-apply the 20th century English meaning of profession to antiquity.

The main point is, money has nothing to do with whether someone is professional or not. Absolutely nothing at all. People had jobs that required serious learning and hard work and even swearing of oaths long before money was really "a thing", and frankly people will still have professions in a barter-based post-apocalypse where money is dead again.

I can't believe we are arguing over a side joke. Ok, from Merriam Webster

a
: a principal calling, vocation, or employment

b
: the whole body of persons engaged in a calling

c
: a calling requiring specialized knowledge and often long and intensive academic preparation

So, two of your three elements are out, and the remaining is a bit secondary....

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I can't believe we are arguing over a side joke. Ok, from Merriam Webster

So, two of your three elements are out, and the remaining is a bit secondary....

I'm talking about the actual meaning and origin of the term, not the dictionary definition but even then, you seem a bit confused by the dictionary you're quoting.

A) Is vague waffles yes I agree.

B) Is irrelevant, that's literally a different use of the term entirely so doesn't impact either way.

C) Is exactly what I'm saying.

Also, the A/B/C are not, in dictionaries "order of correctness" or something. They're totally meaningless and often different between different dictionaries.

Certainly the dictionary doesn't support money having anything to do with it, does it? I mean feel free to look up the origin of the word if you think I'm wrong, but don't just drop the dictionary definition, which doesn't even agree with you, and then act like it proves you right lol. Come on.

 

[MoonSong]

I'm talking about the actual meaning and origin of the term, not the dictionary definition but even then, you seem a bit confused by the dictionary you're quoting.

A) Is vague waffles yes I agree.

B) Is irrelevant, that's literally a different use of the term entirely so doesn't impact either way.

C) Is exactly what I'm saying.

Also, the A/B/C are not, in dictionaries "order of correctness" or something. They're totally meaningless and often different between different dictionaries.

Certainly the dictionary doesn't support money having anything to do with it, does it? I mean feel free to look up the origin of the word if you think I'm wrong, but don't just drop the dictionary definition, which doesn't even agree with you, and then act like it proves you right lol. Come on.

I meant that the independent quality and it being explicitly not a trade/craft don't figure into the Dictionary definition. I wasn't defending my arguments, I was rebating yours.

I agree that the English usage doesn't seem to require remuneration as a necessary condition*. And I see this is just a too wide and variable concept across different places and even different vocational traditions. (Let alone across languages and cultures)

Come on, this is just a silly joke made on a funny factoid after a dumb quote by a Victorian writer (a very cancelable Victiorian Writer while at that....). Relax a little n_n.



*Though in my mother tongue, it is a necessary condition of a profession. Professionals get paid. Without money, you can't have professions.

 

[CleverNickName]

@MoonSong It's my fault; I was having a weird brain day and started wondering if that old saying was true. That out of all possible professions across all of human history, is sex work truly the oldest one? Is it really older than farmer, older than hunter, older than warrior? I'm not convinced that it is, but it's plausible. It also happens to be funny, and that's probably why it's repeated so often. We will never be able to prove it one way or another, so why not go with the answer that makes you chuckle?

But I couldn't leave it at that, and instead I made it weird. On the internet.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

But I couldn't leave it at that, and instead I made it weird. On the internet.