It's an unfortunate loss for our conceptual heritage for the word 'professional' to have been mostly hijacked to mean something more like 'obedient', 'conformis

It's an unfortunate loss for our conceptual heritage for the word 'professional' to have been mostly hijacked to mean something more like 'obedient', 'conformist', 'dull', 'bland', 'besuited' etc. Once you don't have a word to express a concept, that concept can quite quickly fall out of circulation. Professionalism was a useful part of modern culture: it would be a shame for it to disappear from the lexicon. A horse that's bolted, I fear.