different between avouch vs profess

English

Etymology

From Old French avouchier, from Latin advoc?re, present active infinitive of advoc?. Doublet of advocate, advoke, and avow.

Verb

avouch (third-person singular simple present avouches, present participle avouching, simple past and past participle avouched)

1. To declare freely and openly; to assert.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, A View of the Present State of Ireland, Dublin: Hibernia Press, 1809, p. 76,^[1]

     Neither indeede would I have thought, that any such antiquities could have been avouched for the Irish, that maketh me the more to long to see some other of your observations, which you have gathered out of that country […]

   • c. 1605, William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act V, Scene 5,^[2]

     If this which he avouches does appear,

     There is nor flying hence nor tarrying here.

2. To acknowledge deliberately; to admit; to confess; to sanction.
   • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Deuteronomy 26:17-18,^[3]

     Thou hast avouched the Lord this day to be thy God, and to walk in his ways, and to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his judgments, and to hearken unto his voice: And the Lord hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar people, as he hath promised thee, and that thou shouldest keep all his commandments;
3. To confirm or verify, to affirm the validity of.
   • 1571, Arthur Golding, The Psalmes of David and others. With M. John Calvins Commentaries, “Epistle Dedicatorie,”^[4]

     For ( […] as the sorowfull dooings of our present dayes do too certeinly avouch) greate men hurt not the common weale so much by beeing evil in respect of themselves, as by drawing others unto evil by their evil example.

   • 1855, Henry Hart Milman, History of Latin Christianity, London: John Murray, Volume 2, Book 4, Chapter 7, p. 159,^[5]

     As a great public document, addressed to the whole Christian world by him who aspired to be the first ecclesiastic, we might be disposed to question its authenticity, if it were not avouched by the full evidence in its favour and its agreement with all the events of the period.

4. To appeal to; to cite or claim as authority.
   • 1628, Edward Coke, Institutes of the Lawes of England, Volume 1, Book 3, Chapter 5 “Of Estates upon Condition,” Section 350, p. 216,^[6]

     And for proofe of their opinion they avouch many successions of authorities that no fee simple should passe before the condition performed.

Related terms

• avouchment
• vouch

Translations

Noun

avouch (uncountable)

1. (obsolete) evidence; declaration
   • c. 1600, William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act I, Scene 1,^[7]

     Before my God, I might not this believe

     Without the sensible and true avouch

     Of mine own eyes.

English

Etymology

From Old French professer, and its source, the participle stem of Latin profit?r?, from pro- + fat?r? (“to confess, acknowledge”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /p???f?s/
• Rhymes: -?s

Verb

profess (third-person singular simple present professes, present participle professing, simple past and past participle professed)

1. (transitive) To administer the vows of a religious order to (someone); to admit to a religious order. (Chiefly in passive.) [from 14th c.]
   • 2000, Butler's Lives of the Saints, p.118:

     This swayed the balance decisively in Mary's favour, and she was professed on 8 September 1578.

2. (reflexive) To declare oneself (to be something). [from 16th c.]
   • 2011, Alex Needham, The Guardian, 9 Dec.:

     Kiefer professes himself amused by the fuss that ensued when he announced that he was buying the Mülheim-Kärlich reactor […].

3. (transitive, intransitive) To declare; to assert, affirm. [from 16th c.]
   • c. 1604, William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, First Folio 1623:

     He professes to haue receiued no sinister measure from his Iudge, but most willingly humbles himselfe to the determination of Iustice […].

   • 1974, ‘The Kansas Kickbacks’, Time, 11 Feb 1974:

     The Governor immediately professed that he knew nothing about the incident.
4. (transitive) To make a claim (to be something); to lay claim to (a given quality, feeling etc.), often with connotations of insincerity. [from 16th c.]
   • 2010, Hélène Mulholland, The Guardian, 28 Sep 2010:

     Ed Miliband professed ignorance of the comment when he was approached by the BBC later.
5. (transitive) To declare one's adherence to (a religion, deity, principle etc.). [from 16th c.]
   • 1983, Alexander Mcleish, The Frontier Peoples of India, Mittal Publications 1984, p.122:

     The remainder of the population, about two-thirds, belongs to the Mongolian race and professes Buddhism.

6. (transitive) To work as a professor of; to teach. [from 16th c.]
7. (transitive, now rare) To claim to have knowledge or understanding of (a given area of interest, subject matter). [from 16th c.]

Translations

Further reading

• profess in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• profess in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.