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The other day I was reading an article and came across the word:

taikonaut, which Wiktionary defines as:

Noun

taikonaut (plural taikonauts)

A person who travels in space for the Chinese space program; a Chinese astronaut. [from 1998.]

The Wiktionary pages also links

spationaut, defining it as:

Noun

spationaut (plural spationauts)

  1. A French astronaut.

  2. (colloquial) A European astronaut, specifically one representing ESA.

Let's not forget, also, about:

cosmonaut

Noun

cosmonaut (plural cosmonauts)

An astronaut, especially a Russian or Soviet one.

Are there other professions that do this? Naming them based on the country that they work for?

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  • Well, when you use foreign languages more professions than not have different names for them, but I know that isn't what you are getting at. I also don't think you are looking for differences between British and American English but are looking for professions where we, within the same English language speaking country, respect and designate the proffesional role used in other countries ? Perhaps "Barrister" would be used in the Wall Street journal instead of "defense attorney" or "defense counsel" if describing the occupation of a British attorney in a similar role abroad?
    – Tom22
    Commented Apr 4, 2018 at 4:28
  • or "Magistrate" for "Municipal Court Judge" or "Traffic Court Judge" .. although I suppose those roles are not as identical as the various astronaut names are.
    – Tom22
    Commented Apr 4, 2018 at 4:30
  • Words like barrister or solicitor would be so foreign to an American ear that I think they would just be translated directly into AmE.
    – Mou某
    Commented Apr 4, 2018 at 4:35
  • Hard to know which papers would use which .. many papers would say "French astronaut" and even "Russian Astronaut", but I do agree Cosmonaut at least is more often used. I think, due to Marry Poppins etc, that if not using the formal Law Enforcement Officers, that most news accounts in the US would say "Constable" to describe a uniformed normal public safety person and I would guess British News might often say "A California Police Officer" ? not sure
    – Tom22
    Commented Apr 4, 2018 at 4:46
  • @Tom22 Another funny thing about this is that a word like taikonaut is probably 99% unknown by normal Chinese people. They probably wouldn't even know astronaut to be honest. It's more like a name for others to call them rather than a word for them to call themselves by.
    – Mou某
    Commented Apr 4, 2018 at 4:55

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"Country they work for..." Hm. Actually, it isn't that simple: an American-born person serving as an astronaut for the Chinese government will probably not be called a "Chinese astronaut." What he/ she WOULD be called, I am not even sure. But along the lines of the question, certainly: we have expressions in the arts like "American artist" and "Czech composer" as well as "Russian historian" and "Chinese poet", but these reflect the identities of the person in question more than they do the nationality of their "employers" (if those employers have a national governmental identity, which often they do not). We also have "Mexican cartel boss" and "South African dissident" and "Nigerian warlord" (this is now getting kind of fun, in a way!) and "Egyptian pharaoh" and "Mayan ruler" and "El Salvadoran general", etc.

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  • +1 for titles of heads of state.
    – Lawrence
    Commented Apr 9, 2018 at 3:22

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