Professor

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /pɹəˈfɛsɚ/

Definitions

1. A senior teacher at a college or university who instructs students and conducts research in their field of expertise
2. An academic who holds a high-ranking position in a university, providing education, mentoring students, and engaging in scholarly research within their discipline
3. A highly qualified educator in a higher education institution responsible for teaching, guiding students, and conducting advanced studies in a specific academic area

Etymology: The word's original sense was much humbler than today's. In Latin, "professor" meant someone who openly declared or claimed knowledge of something, a person who made a public profession of a skill or belief. That sense came from "profiteor," meaning "to profess" or "to declare openly," built from "pro" (forth, publicly) and "fateor" (to confess or acknowledge). The word reached English through Anglo-Norman "proffessur," which carried the same idea of one who professes a subject. In Middle English it appeared as "professor" and "professour," and its meaning was tied to making a claim of expertise rather than holding an office. The academic sense of a teacher of high rank developed later, as universities began to appoint people to publicly declared teaching posts. The modern English word thus preserves the notion of openly professing knowledge: a professor is, at root, someone who publicly claims a body of learning and stands behind it.

Synonyms: instructor, teacher, educator, lecturer, academic

Antonyms: student, learner