Client

[klahy-uh nt] /ˈklaɪ ənt/

noun
1.
a person or group that uses the professional advice or services of a lawyer, accountant, advertising agency, architect, etc.
2.
a person who is receiving the benefits, services, etc., of a social welfare agency, a government bureau, etc.
3.
a customer.
4.
anyone under the patronage of another; a dependent.
5.
Computers. a computer or an application on a computer that communicates with a remote server:
Exit the program before installing the patch to update the client.
6.
.
7.
(in ancient Rome) a plebeian who lived under the patronage of a patrician.
adjective
8.
being a regular customer:
a client company.
9.
economically, and often militarily, dependent upon a more prosperous, more powerful nation.
/ˈklaɪənt/
noun
1.
a person, company, etc, that seeks the advice of a professional man or woman
2.
a customer
3.
a person who is registered with or receiving services or financial aid from a welfare agency
4.
(computing) a program or work station that requests data or information from a server
5.
a person depending on another’s patronage
n.

late 14c., from Anglo-French clyent (c.1300), from Latin clientem (nominative cliens) “follower, retainer,” perhaps a variant of present participle of cluere “listen, follow, obey” (see listen); or, more likely, from clinare “to incline, bend,” from suffixed form of PIE root *klei- “to lean” (see lean (v.)).

The ground sense apparently is of one who leans on another for protection. In ancient Rome, a plebian under protection of a patrician (called patronus in this relationship; see patron); in English originally “a lawyer’s customer,” by c.1600 extended to any customer.
client
(klī’ənt)
A program that runs on a personal computer or workstation connected to a computer network and requests information from a file server.

programming
A computer system or process that requests a service of another computer system or process (a “server”) using some kind of protocol and accepts the server’s responses. A client is part of a client-server software architecture.
For example, a workstation requesting the contents of a file from a file server is a client of the file server.
(1997-10-27)