What made me realize and pay attention to the word "practice"first came about due to the use of it by attorneys and how most attorneys are referred to here in the USA.
Here attorneys are referred to as "attorney at law" or as a "practicing attorney at law". There is good reason for the use of the term "practicing" with lawyers and it all hinges on the word "at".
The law of the land in the USA is "common law" and the common law and courts have been done away with and replaced with codes and statutes and courts of equity. So an attorney can't work "in" law, because "law" no longer exists here. The can get right up close to it or nearly "at" law, which is those codes and statutes but they can't say honestly that they work "in law" because you can't work in an arena that isn't there any longer.
Most people don't pay any attention to little nuances in the use of words and phrases but those are there and used for reasons. Kind of like the use of artificial sweeteners, those aren't good for people for the most part but they have less calories and make what ever they are used in almost seem like tasting the same as when sweetened with real natural sugars.
The real common law would be "the natural" and the codes and statutes would be "the artificial".
Doctors I think use the word "practice" since none of them really do anything more than write prescriptions or do procedures. "Working" would imply that you are actually accomplishing something and would have results to show for it. We have one hospital here in Houston that uses the saying, "Leading Medicine." That's great or so it sounds, how about it though? To me I see that as they are prescribing a whole lot of pharmaceuticals. Nothing in the phrase, Leading Medicine, says anything about curing health issues.
There is no money in curing people; the money is made in having patients. Why are people called "patients" anyway? The reason is we are told it takes "time" to come up with these cures for diseases and illnesses, so we the public who are in need of these things need to be patient; the medical profession is trying to solve the issues or so they say, so be patient.
I damn near have made this reply long enough to be a Daily Dose and with good information for folks to consider, I hope people read all the comments because you made the perfect reply for me to turn lose on this subject Lizelle. Thanks so much for that, I do truly appreciate it and thanks for saying,"I'd never given the word practice a thought... " because most of us never have, we were never taught to think or question like we really should.
Okay, I am getting down from my soap box now, we can return to normal now.
Well well well mr Papper, that's a whole lot of information there, I believe this subject is deserving of a post all on its own and I mean what I'm saying!
Patients certainly are better for their pockets, so unless we're happy to be patient about getting better, that's exactly what we will remain!
Have to be careful with words now before you find another one mr Papper :):)
Look forward to that post about Words, reminds me of the song...Words, don't come easy to me... Or perhaps they come too easy!
Sometimes I just get carried away on replying but while the iron is hot I started shaping the metal while it is still glowing red.