Professional

English contains many slippery words. Not only are the meanings ill-defined in particular, but also connotations keep changing. New words take on nuance. Such a word in my lifetime has been “professional.”

Strictly defined in my youth, “professional” meant you were paid for doing a job, with a connotation that such was your primary income. A “professional,” such as a plumber, was also expected to be expert in the craft.

Even back then the meaning was slipping. One could not be a “professional” doctor or lawyer, since there could be no amateurs on account of licensing. As certification and regulation engulfed society, that has been more and more the case. These days only freelance workers can be deemed professional or not, depending on what they really do for a living.

And the connotation has equivalently slipped. “Professional”, like “expert”, has come to signify someone claiming true esoteric knowledge. But the severely narrowing focus of esoteric study has diminished faith that an “expert”actually knows anything useful about general problems and makes most of us suspicious.

“Professional” has thus sunk to a kind of description of minimal adequacy, with grudging admiration as in a “true professional” (there are no false professionals.)

I am professional nothing these days, and I do not miss the classification.