bursar

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin bursārius (“purse-bearer, treasurer”),^[2][3][4][5] from bursa (“bag, purse”),^[3][5] from Late Latin bursa, a variant of byrsa (“hide”),^[3] from Ancient Greek βύρσα (býrsa, “hide, leather; wineskin”).^[3][6] Earlier records are in medieval documents: Anglo-Latin burser, treasurer (1234), and burser, purse maker, in the surname Rob le Burser (1208).^[7] The Middle English word, burser, also bourser and bouser, came from the Medieval Latin noun and Old French borsier,^[8][7] and Barnhart thinks the modern word perhaps a reborrowing of it.^[7] Hoad and the Shorter Oxford credit the Scottish use to French boursier,^[9][10] and the OED compares that word for its first two senses.^[2] It is a doublet of purser.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A treasurer: Middle English bouser, in Oxford accounts of 1450–51 that mention "the bousers of Lyncolne colage".^[8][7] The modern form appears first for a Scottish scholarship student in 1567,^[2][3][7] and for a treasurer in 1587, in Harrison's Description of England.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word applied from the start to the keepers of an institution's purse, in colleges and monasteries,^[8][5] and has broadened to the financial officer of any school or university.^[11][4] Scotland gave it a second sense, a student who holds a bursary, recorded from 1567 in an Act under James VI.^[2] Johnson (1755) gave both senses, describing the Scottish bursars as students sent to the universities by each presbytery on a small yearly allowance for four years.^[12] A Glasgow account quoted in the English Dialect Dictionary explains the name as given to poor students "probably because they were pensioners on the common purse".^[13] The sense survives in Scotland and New Zealand.^[11][14] In 1831 W. Hamilton used it for a student in a hostel of a medieval university.^[2]

Timeline

• 1450 – bouser, the treasurer of a college.^[8][7]
• 1567 – a student or scholar who holds a bursary, in Scottish universities and schools.^[2][3][7]
• 1587 – a treasurer, especially of a college.^[2] Etymonline dates this to the 1580s, and Barnhart to 1857.^[3][7]
• 1831 – a student living in a hostel associated with a medieval university.^[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. An official who manages the money of a college, school, university or monastery; a treasurer: The bursar refused to sign the invoice.^{[11][4][5][2]}
2. (chiefly Scotland and New Zealand) A student who holds a bursary.^{[11][14][5][2]}
3. A student living in a hostel or hall of residence of a medieval university.^[2][5]

Word family

• bursary
• bursarship

Related words

• bursa
• disburse
• purse
• reimburse
• purser
• bourse

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
14. ^ a b The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers