profess

pronunciation

How to pronounce profess in British English: UK [prəˈfes] word uk audio image

How to pronounce profess in American English: US [prəˈfes] word us audio image

Verb:

practice as a profession, teach, or claim to be knowledgeable about
confess one's faith in, or allegiance to
admit, make a clean breast of
state freely
receive into a religious order or congregation
take vows, as in religious order
state insincerely

Word Origin

profess: profess: [14] Profess comes from prōfessus, the past participle of Latin prōfitērī ‘declare publicly’. This was a compound verb formed from the prefix prō- ‘forth, in public’ and fatērī ‘acknowledge, confess’ (a relative of English fable, fame, and fate and source also of confess). A professor [14] is etymologically someone who ‘makes a public claim’ to knowledge in a particular field; and someone’s profession [13] is the area of activity in which they ‘profess’ a skill or competence.=> confess, fable, fame, fate

profess (v.): early 14c., "to take a vow" (in a religious order), a back-formation from profession or else from Old French profes, from Medieval Latin professus "avowed," literally "having declared publicly," past participle of Latin profiteri "declare openly, testify voluntarily, acknowledge, make public statement of," from pro- "forth" (see pro-) + fateri (past participle fassus) "acknowledge, confess," akin to fari "to speak," from PIE root *bha- (2) "to speak, tell, say" (see fame (n.)). Meaning "declare openly" first recorded 1520s, "a direct borrowing of the sense from Latin" [Barnhart]. Related: Professed; professing.

vt.

vt.

1. The very thing he would profess to hate about my way of looking at things .

2. Even people who profess not to care much for organised labour say they voted against the legislation .

3. There 's no greater threat to religious people than to profess your desire to think for yourself .

5. Of the 1.1 billion unaffiliated , many profess some belief in a higher power .