clerk

[klurk; British klahrk] /klɜrk; British klɑrk/
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)
8.
to act or serve as a clerk.
Origin
before 1000; Middle English, Old English clerc, variant of cleric < Late Latin clēricus cleric
Related forms
clerkish, adjective
clerklike, adjective
clerkship, noun
outclerk, noun
subclerk, noun
subclerkship, noun
underclerk, noun
underclerkship, noun
Examples from the web for clerk
  • They are not everywhere yet, but the new devices handle virtually all of the manual transactions once performed by the clerk.
  • Paralegals are essentially a fancy combination of a legal secretary and a filing clerk.
  • She has already gone part-time as an accounts clerk.
  • When it came time to find a hotel, my friends asked the desk clerk for one room.
  • Do students need some calculation, of course, but the example of the clerk who can t make change is old and uninformative.
  • Now he was moving to work as a clerk in his father's leather-goods store.
  • In other words, get ready for the sales clerk to offer you yet another option along with the useless extended warranty.
  • The checkout clerk with neon blue hair didn't know the difference.
  • At a hotel nearby, the desk clerk said he would hear the engine when it came.
  • Imagine entering an empty department store alone, with no clerk in sight to help you find what you want or answer your questions.
British Dictionary definitions for clerk

clerk

/klɑːk; US, Canadian klɜːrk/
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, etc: a town clerk
4.
(Brit) Also called clerk of the House. a senior official of the House of Commons
5.
Also called clerk in holy orders. a cleric
6.
(US & Canadian) short for salesclerk
7.
(US & Canadian) Also called desk clerk. a hotel receptionist
8.
(archaic) a scholar
verb
9.
(intransitive) to serve as a clerk
Derived Forms
clerkdom, noun
clerkish, adjective
clerkship, noun
Word Origin
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
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.