clerk
- a person employed, as in an office, to keep records, file, type, or perform other general office tasks.
- a salesclerk.
- a person who keeps the records and performs the routine business of a court, legislature, board, etc.
- law clerk.
- a member of the clergy; ecclesiastic.
- a lay person charged with various minor ecclesiastical duties.
- Archaic.
- a person who is able to read, or to read and write.
- a scholar.
- to act or serve as a clerk.
Origin of clerk
Related Words
cashierauditorworkeragentbookkeeperoperatorsalespersonemployeesecretaryreceptionisttellersellerregistrarnotarytranscriberstenographeramanuensiscounterpersonrecordercopyistExamples from the Web for clerk
Contemporary Examples
Judge Hinkle said “the Constitution requires the Clerk to issue such licenses.”
The Back Alley, Low Blow-Ridden Fight to Stop Gay Marriage in Florida Is Finally OverJay Michaelson
January 5, 2015
Bob Cratchit, the clerk who is the father of Tiny Tim and who meekly serves Scrooge, is paid fifteen shillings a week.
As a way to be more available to needy souls outside the church, Williams took a clerk job at Walgreens pharmacy.
But instead of talking to us and resolving the issue, or getting a manager involved, the clerk calls the cops.
Her new friends jump to her defense and loudly tell the clerk to back off.
Historical Examples
Was the gentleman” (he chose that word as he looked at the boys) “layman or clerk?
The Armourer's PrenticesCharlotte M. Yonge
He needs a clerk for his law matters, and the Dean said he would speak of me to him.
The Armourer's PrenticesCharlotte M. Yonge
He had travelled, and had been a merchant's clerk in Paris and London.
MalboneThomas Wentworth Higginson
His letter was from his wife's brother, in whose bank Cornelius was a clerk.
Weighed and WantingGeorge MacDonald
Clerk or no, you have acted this day as becomes a true knight.
The White CompanyArthur Conan Doyle
clerk
- a worker, esp in an office, who keeps records, files, etc
- clerk to the justices (in England) a legally qualified person who sits in court with lay justices to advise them on points of law
- an employee of a court, legislature, board, corporation, etc, who keeps records and accounts, etca town clerk
- Also called: clerk of the House British a senior official of the House of Commons
- Also called: clerk in holy orders a cleric
- US and Canadian short for salesclerk
- Also called: desk clerk US and Canadian a hotel receptionist
- archaic a scholar
- (intr) to serve as a clerk
Word Origin
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.