Clerk
Etymology
Middle English, from Anglo-French clerk & Old English cleric, clerc, both from Late Latin clericus, from Late Greek klērikos, from Greek klēros lot, inheritance (in allusion to Deuteronomy 18:2), stick of wood; akin to Greek klan to break
- Date: before 12th century
Definitions
- 1 : cleric
- 2 archaic : scholar
- 3 a : an official responsible (as to a government agency) for correspondence, records, and accounts and vested with specified powers or authority (as to issue writs as ordered by a court) <city clerk>
- b : one employed to keep records or accounts or to perform general office work
- c : one who works at a sales or service counter
Description
Clerk, the vocational title, commonly refers to a white-collar worker who conducts general office or, in some instances, sales tasks. The responsibilities of clerical workers commonly include record keeping, filing, staffing service counters and other administrative tasks. In American English, this includes shop staff, but in British English, such people are known as shop assistants and are not considered to be clerks. Also, the pronunciation is different: /ˈklɑrk/ klark in most dialects outside North America, but /ˈklɜrk/ "klerk" in North American dialects.
- History and Etymology
The word clerk, derived from the Latin clericus meaning 'cleric', i.e. clergyman (Latin was the foremost language used at most early medieval courts, writing mainly entrusted to clergy as most laymen couldn't read), can denote someone who works in an office and whose duties include record-keeping or correspondence. The word entered English from Scots Gaelic clèireach also derived from Latin clericus, which in turn derived from Greek κληρικός (klerikos) "of the clergy".
In a medieval context, the word meant "Scholar" and still related to the word "cleric". Even today, the term Clerk regular designates a type of regular clerics. The cognate terms in some languages, e.g. Klerk in Dutch, became restricted to a specific, fairly low rank in the administrative hierarchy.
