publican

Etymology

It is partly borrowed from Anglo-Norman publican, also Old French publicain, and partly borrowed from Latin pūblicānus (“contractor for the collection of taxes, tax collector”).^[2][3][4] The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from about 1136–65.^[5] Some early forms show the influence of the Anglo-Norman and Old French words for people.^[2] In Latin the noun was originally an adjective, "of the public revenue",^[6][4] from pūblicum (“public revenue”), a noun use of the neuter of pūblicus (“of the people, public”), the source of public, with the suffix -ānus.^[2][7][6] Compare Spanish publicano (about 1200) and Italian pubblicano (first half of the 13th century).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A Roman tax collector: about 1175, in the Ormulum, in the spelling puplican: "Puplicaness comenn þær, Att himm to wurrþenn fullhtnedd".^[2][3] Barnhart has a first record probably before 1200, in the Ancrene Riwle,^[6] and Etymonline dates the word to the late 12th century.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The first publicans were the men who paid for the right to collect Roman public revenues, keeping a percentage,^[7] and in the New Testament they appear as tax collectors held in low regard.^[2][8] A verse in Matthew (18:17) that sets the publican beside the heathen produced the Middle English use for a person cut off from the Church.^[2][9] From the 16th century the word could mean any collector of tolls or tribute, a use now rare.^[2] The modern sense, "keeper of a public house", is first recorded in Bailey's dictionary of 1728, apparently at first as a joke, after public house or the noun public.^[2][6][4][7] Johnson (1755) still listed the toll gatherer first and marked the innkeeper "in low language",^[10] and Trench (1859) noted the change, repeating Johnson's label.^[11] Chaucer has the word once, as "tax collector".^[12] In Yorkshire and Oxfordshire publicans, or publicans and sinners, was a name for the marsh marigold.^[13]

Timeline

• c. 1175 – a Roman tax collector, in the Ormulum.^[2][3]
• before 1400 – a heathen or excommunicated person, in a copy of Mannyng's Handlyng Synne, composed about 1303.^[2][6]
• before 1563 – any collector of tolls or tribute, in Bale.^[2]
• 1728 – a keeper of a public house, in Bailey's dictionary.^[2][6][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (chiefly British) A person who owns or runs a pub or public house.^[14][2][9]
2. In ancient Rome, a contractor who farmed the public taxes; a tax collector, especially one in the New Testament.^[14][8][2]
3. (rare) Any collector of tolls, taxes or tribute.^[2][8]
4. A person cut off from the Church.^[2][8]

Word family

• publicanism

Related words

• public
• pub
• public house
• Paulician

Usage notes

A separate noun Publican meant a heretic (1481), and later a Cathar or Albigensian (1573).^[2][9] It is from Old French popelican and Medieval Latin popelicanus, probably from Byzantine Greek Παυλικιανός (Paulikianos, “Paulician”), assimilated to the Latin word for a tax collector.^[2][9][3]

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 m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ 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)
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
6. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
8. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker
12. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
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 Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins