banker

banker¹ person who runs a bank

Etymology tree of banker¹

inherited borrowed derived

English bank

English banker

Etymology

The OED explains it as partly from English bank + -er, formed on the money sense of bank after the French word, and partly borrowed from Middle French banquier,^[2] from Italian banchiere (13th century), from banco (“bench, market stall, counter”) or banca.^[2][3] Etymonline also treats it as an English agent noun from bank, possibly modelled on French banquier,^[4] while Merriam-Webster, the Shorter Oxford and Dictionary.com derive it from the French word.^[3][5][6] The Shorter Oxford compares the Anglo-Latin bancarius.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A money changer, especially one who bought and sold foreign coin: 1484, in Caxton's translation of Aesop's Fables; this sense lasted until 1683.^[2][7]

Semantic evolution

Before banks in the modern sense, the banker was a money changer and then, from ?1526, a moneylender.^[2] Etymonline dates the word to the 1530s,^[4] Merriam-Webster gives 1529,^[3] and Dictionary.com 1525–35.^[6] The modern sense, a person who owns or manages a bank, appears in a statute of 1670–1;^[2][7] Johnson (1755) defined a banker as one who traffics in money, quoting Dryden on “the Lombard bankers”.^[8] In gambling the banker has been the player or keeper who holds the bank since 1706, in Susanna Centlivre's Basset-Table,^[2][7] and a card game called banker is recorded from 1874.^[2] In British football pools a banker was a result thought certain, from 1938,^[2] and Green's Dictionary of Slang records the general sense of a sure thing.^[9] In underworld slang a banker is a respectable-looking person who holds a thief's or drug dealer's money, a use Green's records in the United States from 1911.^[9]

Timeline

• 1484 – a money changer (obsolete by 1683).^[2]
• ?1526 – a moneylender.^[2]
• 1529 – Merriam-Webster's date for the first sense.^[3]
• 1670 – a person who owns or manages a bank.^[2]
• 1706 – the keeper of the bank in a gambling game.^[2]
• 1874 – a card game.^[2]
• 1911 – slang: a person who holds criminals' money.^[9]
• 1938 – football pools: a result forecast as certain.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A person who owns or manages a bank, or who works in banking at a senior level: Several bankers were questioned about the loans.
2. In gambling games, the player or official who holds the bank and pays out winnings.
3. (British, informal) A result or person thought to be a certainty, especially in a forecast or bet.

Word family

• merchant banker
• banking

banker² worker on banks; flooded river

Etymology tree of banker²

inherited borrowed derived

English bank

English banker

Etymology

This word was formed in English, probably from English bank + -er, partly from the noun bank (of earth, a river or the sea) and partly from the verb.^[2][5] The fishing senses refer to the Grand Banks off Newfoundland, fished by European expeditions since at least the 16th century.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A labourer who makes or repairs banks, ditches or canals: a1627, in Middleton and Rowley's The Changeling.^[2][7] The OED also records a slang banker in 1591, a bowls player who cheats to help an accomplice win bets, but notes that this may be a different word.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The labourer sense survived in English dialect: Wright's Dialect Dictionary records banker for a navvy or ditch-digger in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.^[10][2] From 1654 the word named a boat fishing on the Newfoundland banks; a fisherman on such a boat followed in 1861, both are now historical.^[2][5] In Australian and New Zealand English a banker is a river swollen to the top of its banks, as in to run a banker, from 1848,^[2][10] and on the railways it has been an extra engine that helps a train up an incline since 1852.^[2][5] A horse able to jump on and off banks too high to clear in one leap has been called a banker since 1885.^[2]

Timeline

• a1627 – a labourer who makes banks or ditches.^[2]
• 1654 – a boat fishing on the Newfoundland banks.^[2]
• 1848 – Australia and New Zealand: a river in flood to the top of its banks.^[2]
• 1852 – an extra locomotive for climbing an incline.^[2]
• 1861 – a fisherman on the Newfoundland banks.^[2]
• 1885 – a horse that jumps on and off banks.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. (Australia, New Zealand, informal) A river or creek flooded up to or over its banks: After the storm the creek was running a banker.
2. A locomotive that helps push or pull a train up a steep gradient.
3. (historical) A ship or fisherman engaged in cod fishing on the Newfoundland banks.
4. (dialect) A labourer who digs ditches or builds earth banks.

banker³ mason's workbench

Etymology tree of banker³

inherited borrowed derived

English bank

English banker

Etymology

It is apparently from English bank + -er, from bank in its old sense of a bench,^[2][5] and the Shorter Oxford suggests it may be an alteration of banco (“a sculptor's bench”).^[5] An older banker, a covering for a bench, borrowed from Anglo-Norman in the 14th century, comes from the same word for a bench.^[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A bricklayer's, mason's or sculptor's workbench on which bricks are cut or stone is dressed: 1700, in Moxon's Mechanick Exercises.^[2][7]

Semantic evolution

The workbench sense was widespread in dialect: Wright's Dialect Dictionary records it in Scotland, Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Somerset and Cornwall.^[10] In Dorset a banker was also a stack of quarried Purbeck stone on the shore at Swanage, waiting to be shipped, from 1853.^[2]

Timeline

• 1700 – a mason's or bricklayer's workbench.^[2]
• 1853 – Dorset: a stack of quarried stone on the shore.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A workbench on which a mason dresses stone or a sculptor models.