professor

Definition

The most senior rank for an academic at a university or similar institution.

Etymology

From Middle English professor, professour, from Anglo-Norman proffessur and its etymon Latin professor (“declarer, person who claims knowledge”), from the past participle stem of profiteor (“profess”). By surface analysis, profess + -or.

Example Sentences

• "Professor is what you become after teaching for twenty to thirty years."
• "[…] I alvvayes thought / It vvas both impious and vnnaturall, / That ſuch immanity and bloody ſtrife / Should reigne among Profeſſors of one Faith."
• "As for Religion, I have not said, much lesse meant irreverently of it, or of the Professors thereof."