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Webster 1913 Edition


Clerk

Clerk

(klẽrk; in Eng. klärk; 277)
,
Noun.
[Either OF.
clerc
, fr. L.
clericus
a priest, or AS.
clerc
,
cleric
, clerk, priest, fr. L.
clericus
, fr. Gr.
κληρικόσ
belonging to the clergy, fr.
κλῆροσ
lot, allotment, clergy; cf. Deut. xviii. 2. Cf.
Clergy
.]
1.
A clergyman or ecclesiastic.
[Obs.]
All persons were styled
clerks
that served in the church of Christ.
Ayliffe.
2.
A man who could read; a scholar; a learned person; a man of letters.
[Obs.]
“Every one that could read . . . being accounted a clerk.”
Blackstone.
He was no great
clerk
, but he was perfectly well versed in the interests of Europe.
Burke.
3.
A parish officer, being a layman who leads in reading the responses of the Episcopal church service, and otherwise assists in it.
[Eng.]
Hook.
And like unlettered
clerk
still cry “Amen”.
Shakespeare
4.
One employed to keep records or accounts; a scribe; an accountant;
as, the
clerk
of a court; a town
clerk
.
The
clerk
of the crown . . . withdrew the bill.
Strype.
☞ In some cases, clerk is synonymous with secretary. A clerk is always an officer subordinate to a higher officer, board, corporation, or person; whereas a secretary may be either a subordinate or the head of an office or department.
5.
An assistant in a shop or store.
[U. S.]

Webster 1828 Edition


Clerk

CLERK

, n.
1.
A clergyman, or ecclesiastic; a man in holy orders.
2.
A man that can read.
Everyone that could read--being accounted a clerk.
3.
A man of letters; a scholar.
The foregoing significations are found in the English laws, and histories of the church; as in the rude ages of the church, learning was chiefly confined to the clergy. In modern usage.
4.
A writer; one who is employed in the use of the pen, in an office public or private, for keeping records, and accounts; as the clerk of a court. In some cases clerk is synonymous with secretary; but not always. A clerk is always an officer subordinate to a higher officer, board, corporation or person; whereas, a secretary may be either a subordinate officer, or the head of an office or department.
5.
A layman who is the reader of responses in church service.

Definition 2024


clerk

clerk

English

Noun

clerk (plural clerks)

  1. (archaic) A cleric or clergyman.
  2. One who occupationally works with records, accounts, letters, etc.; an office worker.
    • 1893, Walter Besant, The Ivory Gate, Prologue:
      Thus, when he drew up instructions in lawyer language, he expressed the important words by an initial, a medial, or a final consonant, and made scratches for all the words between; his clerks, however, understood him very well.
  3. (Quakerism) A facilitator of a Quaker meeting for business affairs.
  4. (archaic) In the Church of England, the layman that assists in the church service, especially in reading the responses (also called parish clerk).

Related terms

Translations

Verb

clerk (third-person singular simple present clerks, present participle clerking, simple past and past participle clerked)

  1. To act as a clerk, to perform the duties or functions of a clerk
    • 1934, George Orwell, Burmese Days, Chapter 1,
      [] for three years he had worked in the stinking labyrinth of the Mandalay bazaars, clerking for the rice merchants and sometimes stealing.
    • 1956, Jean Stafford, "A Reading Problem" in The Collected Stories of Jean Stafford, New York: E.P. Dutton, 1984, p. 332,
      In the winter, they lived in a town called Hoxie, Arkansas, where Evangelist Gerlash clerked in the Buttorf drugstore and preached and baptized on the side.
    The law school graduate clerked for the supreme court judge for the summer.