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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?
There's an interesting article about it here, 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.
