Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2017 July 5

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July 5

Professional Door Opener and other jobs

Is there a job position for someone to open doors for walkers? What about someone who washes dishes? Professional Door Opener? Professional Dishwasher? Professional Burger Flipper? What kind of job must one apply to in order to flip burgers in a restaurant?50.4.236.254 (talk) 01:11, 5 July 2017 (UTC)

Doorman, dishwasher, and short order cook in that order.--Jayron32 02:01, 5 July 2017 (UTC)

Though in France, dishes are washed by a plongeur. Many interesting details of this position can be gleaned from George Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 94.12.89.162 (talk) 05:54, 5 July 2017 (UTC)

When I passed through Mumbai Airport in 1988 (it was still called Bombay then), there was a man employed to stand in the Gents toilets and hand out paper towels. I suspect that he's been replaced by a paper towel dispenser since then. Alansplodge (talk) 08:31, 5 July 2017 (UTC)

Maybe not there, but I have encountered such people in India. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 10:20, 5 July 2017 (UTC)

I've encountered them a handful of times in the US (within the last decade). A restroom attendant used to be a common thing in upscale places about two to three generations ago, often providing cologne, a comb (in Barbasol), and other services and items.  — SMcCandlish ☺ ☏ ¢ ≽^ʌⱷ҅_ᴥⱷ^ʌ≼  05:12, 11 July 2017 (UTC)

The person who opens doors is also sometimes called a "greeter" ( a term popularized by Walmart). --Xuxl (talk) 12:31, 5 July 2017 (UTC)

The typical Walmart has motion-sensitive opening and closing of doors. So the greeter doesn't open doors. He/she just... greets. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 21:17, 5 July 2017 (UTC)

And someone who services a restroom is generally a restroom attendant. uhhlive (talk) 18:21, 5 July 2017 (UTC)

Whereas somebody who services people in a restroom is generally called a ... well, let's not get into that. StuRat (talk) 20:12, 5 July 2017 (UTC)

US Senator? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 21:18, 5 July 2017 (UTC)

See also Dan, Dan the Lavatory Man. Alansplodge (talk) 23:13, 5 July 2017 (UTC)

_{Seeing as we're going down the jobs route would now be a good time to mention Saggar Maker's Bottom Knocker? - X201 (talk) 20:19, 5 July 2017 (UTC)}

Professional

A subsidiary question is what counts as "professional". Once the word denoted doctor, lawyer, accountant. Now it seems to mean "paid". Certainly I have seen "gentlemen of the road" opening the door of a post office or bank, in the hopes that the pedestrian entering would tip him. So he would be a non-professional - but he did the job well. Question: what does "professional" mean in 2017? I suspect the descriptivist dictionaries are long out of date. Carbon Caryatid (talk) 15:10, 6 July 2017 (UTC)

Banking and insurance are industries, rather than professions. In contradistinction to "amateur", professional does indeed mean "paid". The same two words can be used to draw a distinction between a job done competently and a job not well done. 81.151.129.204 (talk) 16:02, 6 July 2017 (UTC)

Although within the insurance industry, underwriters, accountants and actuaries would certainly consider their roles to be professions. Alansplodge (talk) 17:07, 6 July 2017 (UTC)

You may find the history of the term to be enlightening.[1] ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 16:28, 6 July 2017 (UTC)

It has a long history in sport. For example, in tennis there's now the open era, which talks about the admittance of "professional" players into Grand Slam events in 1968. The article doesn't define the term "professional", but it seems to be the obvious meaning, someone who earns his living from tennis playing and does not have a regular job. The Olympic Games also were once restricted to amateurs, but that is ancient history now, if 1988 is considered ancient, although that was only when the IOC finally capitulated and removed the last vestiges of discrimination against professional athletes, which had been gradually whittled away over some decades prior to that (see Olympic Games#Amateurism and professionalism). -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 22:17, 6 July 2017 (UTC)

Also, most everybody employed these days is expected to operate "in a professional manner", although I don't recall ever seeing an elaboration of that term. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 03:38, 7 July 2017 (UTC)

See sense 1b here, and also a bit of sense 4. --76.71.5.114 (talk) 05:07, 7 July 2017 (UTC)

In tenancy matters, the meaning of the word "professional" seems to encompass all office workers, however lowly the position. 82.12.63.55 (talk) 12:48, 10 July 2017 (UTC)

I would guess that in many cases it means genteel. —Tamfang (talk) 07:21, 11 July 2017 (UTC)

At least in the US, there is a special usage of the word that refers only to highly-paid, advanced-degree positions that typically require licenses, including doctors, lawyers, and accountants, and by extension a few others like bankers. In this usage, it usually implies "financially successful" and it is used primarily in marketing, and is used alone without any kind of qualifier. E.g., "RichLove: an exclusive dating site for professionals". This is not the usual usage of the word, including in the US, where it refers to someone who does a particular line of work as their primary source of income, e.g. a professional roofer, a professional web developer, or whatever.  — SMcCandlish ☺ ☏ ¢ ≽^ʌⱷ҅_ᴥⱷ^ʌ≼  04:19, 11 July 2017 (UTC)

Please someone tell me that Saturday Night Live has already done a skit contrasting what RichLove, if it exists, presumably means by the phrase "dating site for professionals" with my first interpretation of it. —Tamfang (talk) 07:23, 11 July 2017 (UTC)