meaning - “Practise the piano” vs. “practise medicine”




  • Someone who practises medicine is a professional.




  • Someone who practises the piano is still learning.




How have these two apparently opposite senses of the word practise arisen?



Answer



The short story is: the "apparently opposite" meanings are in reality not opposite at all; they are merely applied to different spheres.


Dictionary.com on practice:



Origin:
1375–1425; (v.) late Middle English practisen, practizen (< Middle French pra ( c ) tiser ) < Medieval Latin prāctizāre, alteration of prācticāre, derivative of prāctica practical work < Greek prāktikḗ noun use of feminine of prāktikós practic; see -ize; (noun) late Middle English, derivative of the v.



I put the original meaning practical work in bold. From here, it is easy to derive the two current meanings: practicing the piano is practical work if you want to get better at it; practicing medicine is practical work if you are good at it and want to keep a job. They're just two senses of the same thing. It doesn't require a large stretch of imagination to go from practical work to either current meaning.


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