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When I look at the words for professions, there are usually kanji such as
員、者、長、師、屋 and such, that end the name. These appear to make sense to me;
however, what about ones such as 家、手、and 士?

For example, why does 歌手 mean "singer"? Does this have anything to do with 手
or "hands"? The same could be said for 作家 similarly.

How did these kanji as suffixes come about to represent any given profession?
Why not any others?
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2012-08-27T02:18:10.717
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2012-08-27T04:10:05.377
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kanji etymology
How did 家, 手, and 士 come to be included in the names of professions?
There's an interesting article about it
[here](http://www.sf.airnet.ne.jp/~ts/language/yakyu.html), starting with a
discussion of the words 投手 (pitcher) and 打者 (batter).

From the writers perspective, 手 indicates someone employed for some concrete
ability, whereas 者 can refer to a particular role or standpoint, often
temporary (although in some cases it means 求道者).

So because the 'batter' isn't a fixed role (you have the same pitcher but a
series of batters), 打手 wouldn't make sense.

Similarly, 運転手 is a person who makes their living from driving, 運転者 is the
driver at a certain time.

For the other suffixes: 家 often means 専門家 (a specialist in something). It does
seem to often be used for artistic occupations, as Chocolate said. 作家 is
someone who writes books for a living. 著者 is the author of a particular book.

士, when it isn't used for military occupations (戦士) usually indicates some
sort of official certification. By comparison, 師 is a master of something
without relation to qualifications. However, some jobs where official
certification is usually held use 師 instead of 士, e.g. 看護師. This comes from
replacing two terms (using 婦/士 for female/male) with a single gender-neutral
form.
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