caissier

Forms

caissier m (plural caissiers, feminine caissière)^[1] Middle French cassier (1543 to about 1700) and quaissier (1571).^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian cassiere (“cashier”), adapted in form, according to the revised TLFi; the Italian word has this sense since 1383.^[2] The word first appears as cassier in 1543 in Antwerp, in a book translated from an Italian manuscript, and it reached France through the Italian-influenced financial centres of Antwerp and Lyon;^[2][3] the form with ⟨a⟩ gave way to the one with ⟨ai⟩ just as casse gave way to caisse.^[2][3] The original TLFi, the Grand Robert and Rey instead derive it in French from that noun with the suffix -ier.^[4][5][6] The revised notice answers that the noun is not found in the sense of a box for money before the 16th century, and then only in the same Italian-influenced texts that bring in the word for the cashier;^[2] German Kassier was borrowed from Italian at about the same time (1585).^[2] The noun itself comes, through Old Occitan caissa, from a popular form of Latin capsa (“box, chest”).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Ympyn's Instruction (Antwerp, 1543) calls the person who keeps the cash a cassier; the spelling Quaissier appears in Paradin's Mémoires in 1571, for an elected treasurer.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its sense of the employee in charge of a firm's or a bank's cash since the 16th century.^[2][6] Cotgrave (1611) glosses it both as a chest-maker and as a chest-keeper or treasurer.^[2] The old form cassier was still used in the 17th century and as late as 1700.^[2] The feminine caissière names a woman who keeps the till in a shop, already in Littré,^[8] and today especially at a supermarket or a cinema.^[9] In French administration the caissier général was a senior official of the Treasury.^[4]

Timeline

• 1543 – Cassier appears in Ympyn's Instruction, printed in Antwerp.^[2]
• 1571 – Paradin writes Quaissier for a treasurer.^[2]
• 1585 – The form cassier is recorded in Dampmartin.^[4][5]
• 1611 – Cotgrave records caissier.^[4][2]
• 1700 – Cassier is still used in the Lettres historiques.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A cashier: a person who keeps the caisse of a shop, bank or business and handles its payments.^[9][4][8]
2. Caissier général: formerly, a senior official of the Treasury at the Ministry of Finance.^[4]

Related words

• caisse
• encaisser
• Latin capsa

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Steinfeld, Nadine; Buchi, Éva, eds. (2005–), TLF-Étym: révision des notices étymologiques du Trésor de la langue française informatisé, Nancy: ATILF
3. ^ a b Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2, 312b
4. ^ a b c d e f Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
5. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
8. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert