clerk

See also: Clerk

English

Etymology

From Middle English clerc, from Old English clerc, from Late Latin clēricus (“a priest, clergyman, cleric", also generally "a learned man, clerk”), from Ancient Greek κληρικός (klērikós, “(adj. in church jargon) of the clergy”), from κλῆρος (klêros, “lot, inheritance,” originally “a shard used in casting lots”). Doublet of cleric.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /klɑːk/
• enPR: klerk, IPA^(key): /klɝk/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• IPA^(key): /klɐːk/, /klɜːk/
• Homophones: Clark, claque (some accents)
• Rhymes: -ɜː(r)k, -ɑː(r)k

Noun

clerk (plural clerks)

1. One who occupationally works with records, accounts, letters, etc.; an office worker.
   • Template:RQ:WBsnt IvryGt
2. (Quakerism) A facilitator of a Quaker meeting for business affairs.
3. (archaic) In the Church of England, the layman that assists in the church service, especially in reading the responses (also called parish clerk).
   • 1595, William Shakespeare, Richard II, act 4 scene 1:

     God save the King! Will no man say, amen? / Am I both priest and clerk? Well then, amen.

4. (dated) A cleric or clergyman (the legal title for clergy of the Church of England is "Clerk in Holy Orders", still used in legal documents and cherished by some of their number).
5. (obsolete) A scholar.
   • 13th century, Traditional carol,

     And all was for an appel, an appel that he toke/As clerkès finden written in their boke.

Derived terms

• mail clerk

Related terms

• clergy
• clergyman
• cleric
• clerical

Translations

cleric or clergyman

• Catalan: clergue (ca) m
• Galician: crego m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Portuguese: clérigo (pt) m
• Spanish: clérigo (es) m

one working with records etc.

• Afrikaans: klerk
• Armenian: կլերկ (hy) (klerk), գրասենյակային ծառայող (grasenyakayin caṙayoġ), գրագիր (hy) (gragir)
• Bulgarian: чиновник (bg) m (činovnik)
• Catalan: oficinista m or f
• Chechen: йохкархо (joxkarxo)
• Chichewa: kalaliki
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 書記／书记 (zh) (shūjì), 书记 (zh) (shūji), 店員／店员 (zh) (diànyuán), 店员 (zh) (diànyuán), 營業員／营业员 (zh) (yíngyèyuán), 营业员 (zh) (yíngyèyuán)

• Czech: úředník (cs)
• Danish: kontorassistent m, kontorfunktionær m, ekspedient (da) m, ekspeditrice (da) m
• Dutch: klerk (nl) m, bediende (nl) m
• Esperanto: komizo (eo), oficisto, aktisto
• Finnish: konttoristi (fi), virkailija (fi)
• French: greffier (fr) m
• German: Büroangestellte m, Angestellte (de) m, Buchhalter (de) m, Bürokaufmann m, Bürokauffrau f, Gerichtsschreiber m, Schreiber (de) m
• Greek: please add this translation if you can

  Ancient: γραμματεύς m (grammateús)

• Hebrew: פקיד (he) m (paqyd), פקידה f (pqida)
• Hindi: क्लर्क (hi) m (klark), बाबू (hi) m (bābū)
• Hungarian: hivatalnok (hu), irodai dolgozó
• Icelandic: skrifstofumaður m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Ido: klerko (io)
• Irish: cléireach m
• Italian: ^{(please verify)} impiegato (it) m
• Japanese: 事務員 (ja) (じむいん, jimuin), 店員 (ja) (てんいん, ten'in), 書記 (しょき, shoki)
• Korean: 사무원 (ko) (samuwon), 서기 (ko) (seogi)
• Latin: scrība m
• Luo: karan
• Malay: kerani
• Maori: karaka
• Norman: clèrc m, clèrcot m
• Norwegian: kontorist, ekspeditør (no)
• Persian: منشی (fa) (monši), سکرتر (fa) (sekreter)
• Portuguese: escriturário (pt) m, escrevente m or f, secretário (pt) m, empregado de escritório m
• Romanian: secretar (ro) m, birocrat (ro) m, funcționar (ro) m
• Russian: клерк (ru) m (klerk), чино́вник (ru) m (činóvnik), слу́жащий (ru) m (slúžaščij)
• Scottish Gaelic: clèireach m
• Serbo-Croatian: pisar (sh) m, beležnik (sh) m, pisarica (sh) f, beležnica (sh) f, bilježnik (sh) m, bilježnica (sh) f
• Slovene: uradnik (sl) m, uradnica f, pisarniški uslužbenec m, pisarniška uslužbenka f
• Sotho: tlelereke
• Spanish: oficinista m or f, secretario (es) m, escribiente m or f, auxiliar administrativo m
• Swahili: karani (sw)
• Swedish: tjänsteman (sv) c
• Thai: เสมียน (th) (sà-mǐian)
• Walloon: comis (wa) m

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, chapter 1, in Burmese Days‎^[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.

Further reading

• “clerk”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “clerk”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.