Quite frequently, a program devoted to a math or science topic will elicit a comment from professionals in those fields. Blame it on 11th grade trig, but those subject line references tend to inspire panic: what did we get wrong this time? (来源：英语杂志 http://www.EnglishCN.com)

One such recent program netted us a musing from one of our favorite mathemeticans. He wrote, "I have the greatest respect for amateur mathematicians… because they pursue the subject for the love of it" and then went on to observe "which makes, I guess, those of us who get paid for it, prostitutes."

He continued: "I looked up the word amateur, and sure enough, it comes from the Latin amator, or 'lover.'"Our correspondent was pleased enough by this correspondence of meanings to have passed it along to us; we were pleased enough by his communication to follow up on his amateur versus prostitute comparison.

We would guess most mathematicians in it for the money would prefer to be known as professionals rather than prostitutes. Of course, elderly mathematicians would want to avoid being grouped into the category oldest profession.

The earliest known print application of oldest profession to prostitution dates back only about a century. Oddly enough, the oldest sense of profession (which originates in the Latin verb meaning "to profess; confess") names "the act of taking the vows that consecrate oneself to a special religious service."