Etymology: < post-classical Latin professus profession, declaration (5th cent.) < classical Latin profess- , past participial stem of profitērī profess v. + -tus , suffix forming verbal nouns. Compare German Profess religious profession (1384). Compare profess v.

Etymology: < Anglo-Norman and Middle French profes that has taken the vows of a religious order (c1170 in Old French as profez ; French profès ) and its etymon classical Latin professus having professed or declared publicly, in post-classical Latin with reference to religious vows (late 4th or 5th cent. in Augustine), past participle of profitērī profess v. Compare Old Occitan profes (c1300), Catalan profés (14th cent.), Spanish profeso (mid 13th cent.), Portuguese professo (13th cent.), Italian professo (13th cent.).In quot. 1896 apparently reborrowed < French profès, in specific sense ‘(of a Jesuit) having taken the fourth vow’.

Etymology: < Anglo-Norman professer (late 13th or early 14th cent. as past participle, ‘admitted (into a religious order)’; compare Middle French, French professer (1584)) and its etymon classical Latin profess-, past participial stem of profitērī to state openly, to declare, avow, to lay claim to, to make one's business or profession, to practise, to teach, lecture, in post-classical Latin also to affirm or declare one's faith in (late 2nd or early 3rd cent. in Tertullian), to make a profession, to take the vows of a religious order (late 4th or early 5th cent. in Augustine), to receive professions (from 1329 in British sources) < pro- pro- prefix¹ + fatērī to confess, acknowledge (see fassion n.). Compare Old Occitan professar (mid 13th cent.; Occitan professar ), Spanish profesar (1439 as professar ), Italian professare (14th cent.). Compare confess v.In Middle English prefixed and unprefixed forms of the past participle are attested (see y- prefix).