"Why does she not do her job?"
Translation:Perché non fa il suo mestiere?
June 4, 2013
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In English there is a significant difference between having a job (lavoro) and having a trade (mestiere). Are the Italian terms really interchangeable?
Mestiere was originally used to refer to those activities that were learnt by practice rather than study, and usually accosted to arts in that category (arti e mestieri); the broader meaning, more common nowadays, refers to the set of practices that make up a job, its know-how. So a retired plumber doesn't have a job (lavoro), but it's still a plumber (mestiere).