different between handy vs professional

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English handy, hondi (attested in personal names), alteration of earlier hendi (“handy, skillful”), from Old English hendi? (“skillful”) (as in listhendi? (“skilled in art”)), from Proto-Germanic *handugaz (“handy, skillful, nimble”), from *handuz (“hand”), equivalent to hand +? -y. Cognate with Middle Low German handich (“skillful, apt”), Middle High German handec, hendec (“manual, hand-held”), Old Norse h?ndugr (“efficient”), Gothic ???????????????????????????? (handugs, “wise, clever”). Akin to Dutch handig (“handy”), Norwegian hendig (“handy”), Swedish händig (“handy”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: h?n'di, IPA^(key): /?hæn.di/
• Rhymes: -ændi

Adjective

handy (comparative handier, superlative handiest)

1. Easy to use, useful.

2. Nearby, within reach.

   Synonym: at hand

3. Of a person: dexterous, skilful.

   Synonym: crafty

4. (slang) Physically violent; tending to use one's fists.
5. Of a freight ship: having a small cargo capacity (less than 40,000 DWT); belonging to the handysize class.

Derived terms

• handily
• handiness
• unhandy

Antonyms

• awkward

Translations

References

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

Etymology 2

hand +? -y (“diminutive suffix”)

Noun

handy (plural handies)

1. (vulgar, slang) A hand job.

Translations

Etymology 3

Clipping of handgun +? -y (“diminutive suffix”)

Noun

handy (plural handies)

1. (MLE, slang) A handgun.

Translations

Anagrams

• Haydn

Scots

Adjective

handy (comparative handier, superlative handiest)

1. handy
2. dexterous, skilful
3. amenable (of an animal)

English

Etymology

profession +? -al

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /p???f???n?l/

Noun

professional (plural professionals)

1. A person who belongs to a profession
2. A person who earns their living from a specified activity
3. A reputation known by name
4. An expert.
   • 1934, Rex Stout, Fer-de-Lance, 1992 Bantam edition, ?ISBN, page 97:

     I have learned that there is a person attached to a golf club called a professional. Find out who fills that post at the Green Meadow Club; […] invite the professional, urgently, to dine with us this evening.

Derived terms

• non-professional, nonprofessional
• pseudo-professional, pseudoprofessional
• semi-professional, semiprofessional
• super professional, super-professional, superprofessional

Translations

Adjective

professional (comparative more professional, superlative most professional)

1. Of, pertaining to, or in accordance with the (usually high) standards of a profession.

   • His forefathers had been, as a rule, professional men—physicians and lawyers; his grandfather died under the walls of Chapultepec Castle while twisting a tourniquet for a cursing dragoon; an uncle remained indefinitely at Malvern Hill; […].
2. That is carried out for money, especially as a livelihood.
3. (by extension) Expert.

Derived terms

• non-professional, nonprofessional
• professionalism
• pseudo-professional, pseudoprofessional
• semi-professional, semiprofessional
• unprofessional

Translations

Catalan

Etymology

professió +? -al

Pronunciation

• (Balearic) IPA^(key): /p?o.f?.si.o?nal/
• (Central) IPA^(key): /p?u.f?.si.u?nal/
• (Valencian) IPA^(key): /p?o.fe.si.o?nal/
• Rhymes: -al

Adjective

professional (masculine and feminine plural professionals)

1. professional

Derived terms

• professionalisme
• professionalment

Noun

professional m or f (plural professionals)

1. professional

Further reading

• “professional” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “professional” in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana.
• “professional” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “professional” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Dutch

Etymology

From English professional.

Pronunciation

Noun

professional m (plural professionals)

1. a professional practicioner of a trade, métier...
2. an expert in a (professional) field

Related terms

• professionalism n