Clerk

[klurk; British klahrk] /klɜrk; British klɑrk/

noun
1.
a person employed, as in an office, to keep records, file, type, or perform other general office tasks.
2.
a salesclerk.
3.
a person who keeps the records and performs the routine business of a court, legislature, board, etc.
4.
.
5.
a member of the clergy; ecclesiastic.
6.
a lay person charged with various minor ecclesiastical duties.
7.
Archaic.

verb (used without object)
8.
to act or serve as a clerk.
/klɑːk; US, Canadian klɜːrk/
noun
1.
a worker, esp in an office, who keeps records, files, etc
2.
clerk to the justices, (in England) a legally qualified person who sits in court with lay justices to advise them on points of law
3.
an employee of a court, legislature, board, corporation, etc, who keeps records and accounts, etc: a town clerk
4.
(Brit) Also called clerk of the House. a senior official of the House of Commons
5.
Also called clerk in holy orders. a cleric
6.
(US & Canadian) short for salesclerk
7.
(US & Canadian) Also called desk clerk. a hotel receptionist
8.
(archaic) a scholar
verb
9.
(intransitive) to serve as a clerk
n.

“man ordained in the ministry,” c.1200, from Old English cleric and Old French clerc “clergyman, priest; scholar, student,” both from Church Latin clericus “a priest,” noun use of adjective meaning “priestly, belonging to the clerus” (see cleric).

Modern bureaucratic usage is a reminder of the dark ages when clergy alone could read and write and were employed for that skill by secular authorities. In late Old English the word can mean “king’s scribe; keeper of accounts;” by c.1200 clerk took on a secondary sense in Middle English (as the cognate word did in Old French) of “anyone who can read or write.” This led to the sense “assistant in a business” (c.1500), originally a keeper of accounts, later, especially in American English, “a retail salesman” (1790). Related: Clerkship.
v.

“act as a clerk,” 1550s, from clerk (n.). Related: Clerked, clerking.