Talk:Oldest profession

Substitution of "opprobrious" by "current euphemistic" unnecessary and incorrect, hence reversion

1. Opprobrious is not an abstruse word. If you enter "opprobrious" in the Wikipedia search box you will find 500 Wikipedia articles that use it. Furthermore it is defined in simple dictionaries for college kids. And even if it were an unusual word, there is no WP objection to using the mot juste in a Wikipedia article.

2. "Current euphemistic" does not mean the same thing as "opprobrious", even remotely. This becomes increasingly obvious further down the article (unthinking application to humbugging and murderers, where no euphemism arises.) Ttocserp 19:36, 17 January 2016 (UTC)

Respectability?

This article is going to need to cite some sources about its perception that prostitution lacks respectability. — Preceding unsigned comment added by A metal shard (talk • contribs) 20:37, 25 October 2016 (UTC)

This article is not about prostitution; there is a detailed article, Prostitution, devoted to that topic. This article is merely about the English-language phrase. Supposing prostitution to be a highly skilled, reputable profession [which in its very highest reaches, it is, of course], it still has nothing to do with how writers have used the phrase. Ttocserp 11:28, 26 October 2016 (UTC)

Merger Proposal

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section. A summary of the conclusions reached follows.

Merge World's second oldest profession into Oldest profession (phrase)

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I propose merging the information from World's second oldest profession into this article. That article was recently proposed for deletion, but some of the information is well-sourced and notable Maltice (talk) 08:03, 25 August 2022 (UTC)Ttocserp 18:17, 4 September 2022 (UTC)

Oppose. (1) The thrust of World's second oldest profession is different. (2) It can be improved. (3) What title would the new article have?Ttocserp 09:36, 25 August 2022 (UTC)

That's fine as well, but I was just hoping to protect the content in the Second article from deletion. I was suggesting that all the content from the Second article be copied into this article, and everything else about this article remain the same Maltice (talk) 14:32, 25 August 2022 (UTC)

• Support. "Second oldest profession" can be created as a subsection in this article, with all of the other article's content brought here. Since it's a play on this phrase, it can easily be covered here. ‡ El cid, el campeador ^talk 15:34, 25 August 2022 (UTC)
• Support. "Second oldest profession" isn't an independent concept, you need the context of the joke "world's oldest profession" to know what it's even talking about. I believe it should be improved as a part of this page rather than be a terminal stub, there's no real justification for a separate article unless this one becomes too long. - car chasm (talk) 16:26, 4 September 2022 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Requested move 2 December 2025

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: moved. (closed by non-admin page mover) – LuniZunie ツ_(talk) 16:05, 9 December 2025 (UTC)

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Oldest profession (phrase) → Oldest profession – Oldest profession already redirects here, I don't see any reason to have the disambiguator. Requested it to see if there is a reason I don't know about. KyleSirTalksAlot (talk) 14:30, 2 December 2025 (UTC)

It's quite a reasonable proposal and I wouldn't necessarily oppose it. The main objection is that, were the article to be called Oldest profession, and nothing else, it would imply that prostitution is indeed the oldest profession, which of course is historical nonsense. I know that's not what the article says, but it would give a wrong impression to people in a hurry (i.e. the majority). As Mark Twain said, “Hain't we got all the fools in town on our side? And hain't that a big enough majority in any town?”

Philosophically and accurately, the topic of this article is not any profession; it is language. It is how human beings have used a literary phrase in the English language. Generally, it does not exist in other languages.

That there are the redirects does no harm. Ttocserp 15:00, 2 December 2025 (UTC)

On Wikipedia, disambiguation tags are added to disambiguate; they are not added simply to add context. See WP:D2D.

The only possible ambiguity appears to be The Oldest Profession, which is already at a distinct title because of WP:DIFFCAPS.

Support. 162 etc. (talk) 20:48, 2 December 2025 (UTC)

• Support per 162 etc. ModernDayTrilobite (talk • contribs) 21:26, 2 December 2025 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.