I am actually referring to a column in the Washington Post (linked to from Slate), but my comment on the Post would not load so I'd like to discuss it here. Sophia Nelson discusses the difficulties faced by black "professional" women. Now, I agree with some of the things she has to say, but I've always found the term "professional" degrading when talking about jobs where there really is no amateur circuit. For example, Sophia is a corporate attorney and claims that she is a professional. Are there amateur lawyers? Are there amateur doctors? It seems like a way to separate herself from other black women who probably also face difficult situations.

Anyway, I'd love to hear how people define the word professional.

To say that I'm a professional is a modest way of indicating my level of education. Someone with a 4 year degree is not a professional, but I am because I have an MBA. Someone with a PhD is often described as "Highly Educated", apparently shunning the need for modesty in payment for all those years of college.

In other words, I'm a professional even if I work at McDonald's, because I put my time in. The CEO of a company could, I guess, be a non-professional if they lack the pedigree. I've never thought about that before, but I like where I'm going with it.

I think the definition involves pantsuits and coffee.

I think it actually has to do with professional licensure.

Medical doctors and lawyers are considered professionals because they may not practice their profession unless they have been granted a license to do so by their respective professional societies. Accountants and engineers who have obtained specialized licenses such as the CPA (Certified Public Accountant) or PE (Professional Engineer) are also considered professionals.

In a similar vein, I believe that law school or medical school graduates who have not been licensed are not referred to as professionals.

Attorneys are most definitely professionals. The word 'professional' in reference to a career can mean several things of course, but in this context the following (vague) definition applies:

--a degree leading to a specific profession such as Medicine, Law, Pharmacy, Optometry, Dentistry, Engineering, Architecture, Chartered Accountant, Nursing, etc. The prerequisite is often a bachelor’s degree.

Basically, it refers to someone who practices in a field which requires a professional degree. A professional degree usually requires more than 4 years of education,and prepares you for a specific job. I was taught in architecture school that another stipulation is that all professionals require licensing to practice in their chosen field.

Ironically, by this definition, professional athletes would not be professionals.

Thanks for the input. There are certainly some good points. So, some of you would argue that a real estate agent (who needs a license) is a professional but a Nobel Prize winning author (who may or may not have majored in English) is not? Obama and Clinton both passed the bar exam but no longer practice law. Are they now not professionals? I guess I was getting at the fact that I think the term "professional" is often used condescendingly to describe jobs where one has to "think." I think waitressing, bus driving, etc. also requires thinking and is just as demanding.

Well, there's professional the noun and professional the adjective. Lots of words have two different meanings. I think what we're seeing here is that difference. If you say "I am a professional" period, you are indicating that you are licensed by some governing body to do a certain job and/or you have a requisite degree. That is not to stop a Nobel-prize winning author from calling himself a professional writer, with the implication being that he does it in anticipation of being paid for it, as opposed to me. I am a professional (licensed attorney), but I am not a professional writer (just a commenter on various websites) or a professional basketball player (pickup games at the Y aren't going to earn me a living, ever).

Good point about the noun/adjective difference. I think one could perhaps separate licensure from the anticipation of payment. If that's the case, is it possible that cashiers could be professionals in the sense that they anticipate payment but not professionals in the sense that they did not receive a license? In other words, if a cashier were to say, "I am a professional," would you be inclined to agree or disagree?

I would disagree. Using kittydg's clarification of noun vs adjective, the cashier would have to refer to him/herself as a professional...something. But that would be pushing it too, if you ask me. Actually I've offended some family members when I told them teachers are not professionals, so maybe my definition is a bit narrow.

And licensure alone does not necessarily make one a professional by my definition; you also need the advanced degree. So it's certainly possible to be a Nobel prize winner who is not a professional, but so what? It's just a word to describe a group of professions; it's not a proclamation of superiority. That being said, all our US Presidents have been professionals except one, so there clearly is some prestige attached to the word.

Good topic, ecb!

That's a good question, and I suppose, like so much in language, it depends on the context. In thinking about your point, I also remembered another meaning of "professional" which is "appropriate to a work environment" or something similar. So it all depends on context. If someone were to ask a cashier, "Would you slap a customer in the face if he made a comment about your appearance?" and he replied, "No, I'm a professional," we would take that to mean that he takes his job seriously, that he endeavors to behave in an appropriate manner. For a different example, I live in a city where there are lots of starving actors, writers, and artists, some of whom work day jobs as waiters, busboys, and yes, cashiers. So a reasonable question in my city might be, "Is this just a day job?" to which someone might reply, "No, I'm a professional," which I would take to mean that this job is not just a placeholder until he can pursue his true calling, but the position he means to keep and possibly advance in/from for the rest of his life. Now if a cashier said "I am a professional" in a context that would mean licensure or a dedicated degree program, I'd have to disagree just factually; you don't need to be licensed or have an advanced degree to be a cashier. Which is not to denigrate the work of cashiers; you need lots of other things to be good at that job, like customer service skills, a sharp eye, a good memory. And as you point out, there are lots of measures of both skill and success. I know a bank vice president who is not a "professional" in the licensure/degree sense because she only has Bachelor's in economics. Furthermore, I know a distressing number of licensed, degreed "professionals" who seldom display any level of professionalism at all. I suppose there is a certain level of prestige attached to the notion of being "a professional" in the doctor/lawyer/accountant/engin­eer sense of the word (interesting side-question, are teachers considered professionals? I have no idea, but they are licensed and most have degrees in teaching), but once you examine the definitions, you realize it's just a matter of passing the right tests.

Ideally, I guess there would be a different word for licensure or the dedicated degree program, but for now all we have to go on is context (which so often involves innuendo and aspersions).

Can I just say, this has been an extremely pleasant Fray experience :-).

"interesting side-question, are teachers considered professionals? I have no idea, but they are licensed and most have degrees in teaching)"

I have no idea why someone wouldn't consider a teacher to be a professional. In my state of CT, they must be certified (licensure that is not easy to obtain) and all must attain a Masters degree in ED by a certain period of time, for this they receive the second highest pay rates in the country. They must also be very careful about their private lives, the teaching profession gets scrutinized more than most. Other states are far less stringent, maybe you wouldn't call them professional there, but I doubt it.

If you're using 'professional' as an adj. opposed to 'blue collar', then teachers certainly aren't blue collar.

And let's not forget the oldest profession, which to my knowledge does not require licensure or an advanced degree:)

Teachers may well be considered professionals--especially now that they are required to have a Master's in Education, which seems to fit the qualification of 'an advanced degree for a specific occupation'. Not sure what you mean by 'licensure is not easy to obtain', but I would point out that it's not easy to obtain in any of the already established professional fields.

Pay and scrutiny of private lives are irrelevant to any definition of 'professional' that I'm aware of, and just because a field is not considered 'professional' (noun) does not mean it's blue collar either.

Essentially, it doesn't matter a whole lot. Teachers consider themselves to be professionals, and I don't see any real reason to dispute that.

I find it interesting that the people who claim they're professional are in job fields that describe their work as "practice" ...

The bottom line, barring all jargon is that a professional is an individual that receives payment for their work. Be it a professional soldier, lawyer, football player, doctor, basket weaver, cigar roller, prostitute ... if one accepts financial recompense for their efforts, that one is a professional.

'Not sure what you mean by 'licensure is not easy to obtain', but I would point out that it's not easy to obtain in any of the already established professional fields."

I was referring to how certifying teachers differs from state to state. It's relatively easy in some states to obtain licensure to teach. Those states pay less.

Another poster had referred to various ways the word 'professional' is used. It is used in terms of professional conduct, that's why I was referring to scrutiny. Ie: As a professional, teachers are subject to more scrutiny than a warehouse worker.

Again, the term is used in various ways. I often hear/read it used as the opposite of blue collar, similar to the way 'white collar' is used. It isn't necessarily how I use it.

You might not see any real reason to dispute that, but someone here posted that they didn't think teachers were professional, without saying why they would claim that.