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definitions

clerk

[klurk; British klahrk]
See more synonyms for clerk on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a person employed, as in an office, to keep records, file, type, or perform other general office tasks.
  2. a salesclerk.
  3. a person who keeps the records and performs the routine business of a court, legislature, board, etc.
  4. law clerk.
  5. a member of the clergy; ecclesiastic.
  6. a lay person charged with various minor ecclesiastical duties.
  7. Archaic.
    1. a person who is able to read, or to read and write.
    2. a scholar.
verb (used without object)
  1. to act or serve as a clerk.

Origin of clerk

before 1000; Middle English, Old English clerc, variant of cleric < Late Latin clēricus cleric
Related formsclerk·ish, adjectiveclerk·like, adjectiveclerk·ship, nounout·clerk, nounsub·clerk, nounsub·clerk·ship, nounun·der·clerk, nounun·der·clerk·ship, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for clerk

cashier, auditor, worker, agent, bookkeeper, operator, salesperson, employee, secretary, receptionist, teller, seller, registrar, notary, transcriber, stenographer, amanuensis, counterperson, recorder, copyist

Examples from the Web for clerk

Contemporary Examples of clerk

Historical Examples of clerk

  • Was the gentleman” (he chose that word as he looked at the boys) “layman or clerk?

    The Armourer's Prentices

    Charlotte M. Yonge

  • He needs a clerk for his law matters, and the Dean said he would speak of me to him.

    The Armourer's Prentices

    Charlotte M. Yonge

  • He had travelled, and had been a merchant's clerk in Paris and London.

    Malbone

    Thomas Wentworth Higginson

  • His letter was from his wife's brother, in whose bank Cornelius was a clerk.

    Weighed and Wanting

    George MacDonald

  • Clerk or no, you have acted this day as becomes a true knight.

    The White Company

    Arthur Conan Doyle

British Dictionary definitions for clerk

clerk

noun
  1. a worker, esp in an office, who keeps records, files, etc
  2. clerk to the justices (in England) a legally qualified person who sits in court with lay justices to advise them on points of law
  3. an employee of a court, legislature, board, corporation, etc, who keeps records and accounts, etca town clerk
  4. Also called: clerk of the House British a senior official of the House of Commons
  5. Also called: clerk in holy orders a cleric
  6. US and Canadian short for salesclerk
  7. Also called: desk clerk US and Canadian a hotel receptionist
  8. archaic a scholar
verb
  1. (intr) to serve as a clerk
Derived Formsclerkdom, nounclerkish, adjectiveclerkship, noun

Word Origin for clerk

Old English clerc, from Church Latin clēricus, from Greek klērikos cleric, relating to the heritage (alluding to the Biblical Levites, whose inheritance was the Lord), from klēros heritage
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for clerk
n.

"man ordained in the ministry," c.1200, from Old English cleric and Old French clerc "clergyman, priest; scholar, student," both from Church Latin clericus "a priest," noun use of adjective meaning "priestly, belonging to the clerus" (see cleric).

Modern bureaucratic usage is a reminder of the dark ages when clergy alone could read and write and were employed for that skill by secular authorities. In late Old English the word can mean "king's scribe; keeper of accounts;" by c.1200 clerk took on a secondary sense in Middle English (as the cognate word did in Old French) of "anyone who can read or write." This led to the sense "assistant in a business" (c.1500), originally a keeper of accounts, later, especially in American English, "a retail salesman" (1790). Related: Clerkship.

v.

"act as a clerk," 1550s, from clerk (n.). Related: Clerked, clerking.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper