&gt;&gt; a profession consists of individuals who have undergone a standard form of training, culminating in some kind of recognized title and degree.<p>Yes, and basically ending there, except for being able to teach it to the next generation. The professions were things like philosophy, geometry, theology, etc.<p>As I understand it, the title &quot;doctor&quot; was used by scholars, e.g., PhDs, long before medicine even existed as a respectable field, and physicians started calling themselves &quot;doctor&quot; to assume an air of respectability.<p>The trades may have been respected, but were a couple of notches below the nobility and the clergy. The idea of achieving a high social status for actually <i>doing</i> something is a newfangled concept.