clerk

 
Pronunciation: /klɑːk/

noun

  • 1a person employed in an office or bank to keep records, accounts, and undertake other routine administrative duties: a bank clerk a wages clerk
  • an official in charge of the records of a local council or court: a clerk to the magistrates
  • a senior official in Parliament.
  • a lay officer of a cathedral, parish church, college chapel, etc.: a chapter clerk
  • 2 (also desk clerk) chiefly North American a receptionist in a hotel: she approached the desk and the clerk looked down at her
  • an assistant in a shop: a clerk in an ice-cream store
  • 3 (also clerk in holy orders) formal a member of the clergy.
  • 4 archaic a literate or scholarly person.

verb

[no object] chiefly North American
  • work as a clerk: eleven of those who left college this year are clerking in auction stores

Phrases

Clerk of the Closet

(in the UK) the sovereign’s principal chaplain.

clerk of the course

an official who assists the judges in horse racing or motor racing.

clerk of (the) works

British a person who oversees building work in progress.

Derivatives

clerkess

noun (chiefly Scottish)

clerkish

adjective

clerkship

noun

Origin:

Old English cleric, clerc (in the sense 'ordained minister, literate person'), from ecclesiastical Latin clericus 'clergyman' (see cleric); reinforced by Old French clerc, from the same source. clerk (sense 1 of the noun) dates from the early 16th century