Antedating of "Professional"

[Fred Shapiro]

professional (OED, modern sense, 1747-8)

1715 Parker, Samuel. An essay upon the duty of physicians and patients,
the dignity of medicine, and the prudentials of practice. 51 (Eighteenth
Century Collections Online)  There is such a thing as I'll venture to call
a _Professional Priesthood_.

Fred Shapiro


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Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
Associate Librarian for Collections and     YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
  Access and Lecturer in Legal Research     Yale University Press,
Yale Law School                             forthcoming
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