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Chambers (1908)

Clerk

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This edition’s origin note

[A.S. clerc, a priest—Late L. clericus. See Clergy.]

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The complete extracted entry

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Clerk, klärk, or klerk, n. a clergyman or priest: a scholar: one who leads the responses in the English Church service: in common use, one employed as a writer, assistant, copyist, account-keeper, or correspondent in an office.—v.i. to act as clerk.—adj. Cler′ical, pertaining to a clerk or copyist, as in 'clerical error.'—ns. Clerk′dom, Clerk′ship; Clerk′ery, Clerk′age, the work of a clerk.—adjs. Clerk′ish, like a clerk; Clerk′less, ignorant; Clerk′-like, scholarly.—n. Clerk′ling, a young clerk.—adj. Clerk′ly, scholarly.—adv. in a scholar-like or learned manner.—Clerk of the weather, an imaginary functionary facetiously supposed to direct the weather.—Bible clerk, a scholar who reads the lessons in some college chapels. [A.S. clerc, a priest—Late L. clericus. See Clergy.]

Source locator ebook:37683;section:dictionary;paragraph:5278;continuation-paragraphs:0;html-characters:1980612-1981971

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  • Historical scholarship from 1908; not current consensus or editorial verification.
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Edition, rights and traceability

Chambers’s Twentieth Century Dictionary of the English Language
Thomas Davidson (editor)
1908

Public-domain-US ↗ · United States

Publisher marks these historical texts public domain in the USA. Transformed book text excludes Gutenberg branding; source attribution is a bibliographic acknowledgment. No non-US public-domain determination is made.

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