Picture the person at the desk who keeps the record: names, numbers, who came in, what was agreed. The job is not to decide anything — it is to write it down, keep it straight, and hand it over when someone asks. From that desk the word spreads to shop counters and hotel front desks, where the same person also serves the public.
From the word’s history
Clerk is from Old English cleric and Old French clerc, from Church Latin clericus 'a priest'. Late Old English already used it for 'king's scribe, keeper of accounts', and by about 1200 for 'anyone who can read or write'; the sense 'assistant in a business' is from about 1500 and 'retail salesman' from 1790. Etymonline notes that modern office use 'is a reminder of the time when clergy alone could read and write and were scribes and account-keepers to secular authorities'.
clerk 來自古英語 cleric、古法語 clerc，源頭是教會拉丁文 clericus（神職人員）。古英語後期它已經用來指「國王的抄寫員、帳目管理者」，約1200年擴大為「識字的人」，約1500年指商行裡的助理，1790年起指店員。原因是當年只有神職人員識字，世俗機關的文書和帳目都由他們處理——所以「職員」和「教士」不是巧合同形，中間那條線就是識字這件事。
Online Etymology Dictionary, entry 'clerk' (etymonline.com/word/clerk)
登入就可以看每一支怎麼連回核心畫面。
原始詞典資料12 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
Clerkname
- 1
A surname.
clerknoun/klɑːk/
- 1
One who occupationally provides assistance by working with records, accounts, letters, etc.; an office worker.
- As office boy I made such a mark That they gave me the post of a junior clerk.
- 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.
- 2
One who occupationally provides assistance by working with records, accounts, letters, etc.; an office worker.
- 3
One who occupationally provides assistance by working with records, accounts, letters, etc.; an office worker.
- 4
One who occupationally provides assistance by working with records, accounts, letters, etc.; an office worker.
- 5
One who occupationally provides assistance by working with records, accounts, letters, etc.; an office worker.
- 6
A facilitator of a Quaker meeting for business affairs.
- 7
archaicIn the Church of England, the layman that assists in the church service, especially in reading the responses (also called parish clerk and Bible clerk).
- God save the King! Will no man say, amen? / Am I both priest and clerk? Well then, amen.
- 8
datedA 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).
另外 1 個記錄的用法
- 9
obsoleteA scholar.
- 13th century, Traditional carol, And all was for an appel, an appel that he toke/As clerkès finden written in their boke.
clerkverb/klɑːk/
- 1
To act as a clerk, to perform the duties or functions of a clerk.
- The law school graduate clerked for the supreme court judge for the summer.
- He turned to a more attentive audience, and found it in the young fellow they called The Iceman, because he clerked in the swell jewelry store around the corner, and was always there with the finger advertisement for his boss’s diamondware.
- 2
medicinesciencesTo assemble information about a patient during their initial assessment by actions such as a taking a detailed medical history and performing a physical examination.
- The best preparation for the long case is to clerk patients on the wards and in outpatients within a strict 60 minutes. This would include deciding on a policy of management.
- You should present a case you have clerked to a doctor (registrar or consultant) and discuss your choice of investigations and management.
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。