Work and occupation

The thirty-first entry is il docente, and it is a Latin present participle taken over whole, from a verb whose other children an English reader already owns four times over. Docere meant to teach. Documentum was a thing that teaches, a lesson or a proof, and it gives « document ». Doctrina was what is taught, and it gives « doctrine ». Doctor was simply a teacher, which is why a doctorate began as a licence to lecture and not as anything to do with a hospital. And docilis meant teachable, easy to instruct, which is what « docile » once said of a pupil and now says of a pony that gives no trouble; the learning has worn out of the word and only the obedience is left. So the root is everywhere in English except in the place Italian keeps it: the person at the front of the room. « Docent » is in the dictionaries, but in Britain it is a rarity and belongs to museums. Il docente and il conducente are built alike, participles that still say the person is doing the thing.