different between own vs profess

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /???n/
• (US) enPR: ?n, IPA^(key): /?o?n/
• (Hong Kong) IPA^(key): /?u?/
• Rhymes: -??n

Etymology 1

From Middle English owen, a?en, from Old English ?gen (“own, proper, peculiar”), from Proto-West Germanic *aigan (“own”), from Proto-Germanic *aiganaz (“own”), from Proto-Indo-European *h?ey?- (“to have, possess”).

Alternative forms

• 'n (informal contraction)

Adjective

own

2. Belonging to; possessed; proper to. Often marks a possessive determiner as reflexive, referring back to the subject of the clause or sentence.
3. Not shared

4. (obsolete) Peculiar, domestic.
5. (obsolete) Not foreign.

Usage notes

• Often used for implication of ownership, often with emphasis. In modern usage, it always follows a possessive determiner, or a noun in the possessive case.

Derived terms

• be one's own worst enemy
• come into one's own
• hoist by one's own petard
• one's own boss
• on one's own

Translations

Etymology 2

A back-formation from owner, owning and own (adjective). Compare Old English ?gnian, Dutch eigenen, German eignen, Swedish ägna.

Verb

own (third-person singular simple present owns, present participle owning, simple past and past participle owned)

1. (transitive) To have rightful possession of (property, goods or capital); to have legal title to.

   I own this car.

2. (transitive) To have recognized political sovereignty over a place, territory, as distinct from the ordinary connotation of property ownership.

3. (transitive) To defeat or embarrass; to overwhelm.

   I will own my enemies.

   If he wins, he will own you.

4. (transitive) To virtually or figuratively enslave.
5. (online gaming, slang) To defeat, dominate, or be above, also spelled pwn.
6. (transitive, computing, slang) To illicitly obtain superuser or root access to a computer system, thereby having access to all of the user files on that system; pwn.
7. (intransitive) To admit, concede, grant, allow, acknowledge, confess; not to deny.
   • 1913, D.H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, chapter 5

     They learned how perfectly peaceful the home could be. And they almost regretted—though none of them would have owned to such callousness—that their father was soon coming back.

8. (transitive) To admit; concede; acknowledge.
   • 1611, Shakespeare, The Tempest, v.:

     Two of those fellows you must know and own.

   • 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, book 2, ch. 1, Jocelin of Brakelond

     It must be owned, the good Jocelin, spite of his beautiful childlike character, is but an altogether imperfect 'mirror' of these old-world things!

9. (transitive) To take responsibility for.
10. (transitive) To answer to.
11. (transitive) To recognise; acknowledge.

    to own one as a son

12. (transitive) To claim as one's own.
13. (intransitive, Britain dialectal) To confess.

Synonyms

• (have rightful possession of): to possess
• (defeat): beat, defeat, overcome, overthrow, vanquish, have, take, best

Antonyms

• (admit): disown

Derived terms

Translations

References

• 1896, Universal Dictionary of the English Language [UDEL], v3 p3429:

  To possess by right; to have the right of property in; to have the legal right or rightful title to.

• 1896, ibid., UDEL
• 1896, ibid., UDEL
• 1896, ibid., UDEL

Anagrams

• NOW, NWO, now, won

Portuguese

Interjection

own

1. aw (used to express affection)

Quotations

For quotations using this term, see Citations:own.

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.