Describes what is 'treadable'—open ground as opposed to sacred space—and by extension what is common, unholy, or irreverent. In the Pastoral Epistles, Paul warns against 'profane and old wives' fables' (1 Tim 4:7) and 'profane empty chatterings' (1 Tim 6:20; 2 Tim 2:16), using the term to mark speech that desecrates what should be holy. In 1 Tim 1:9 it characterizes lawless persons alongside the 'unholy,' and Heb 12:16 applies it to Esau as the archetype of the profane person who trades sacred birthright for a meal. Spanish 'profanas' and French 'profane' both derive from the same Latin root (pro-fanum, 'before the temple'), perfectly mirroring the Greek sense of being outside sacred bounds.