banker English · revision 39814

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * UK: /ˈbæŋkə/^(Wiktionary)

+ * US: /ˈbæŋkɚ/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ {{homograph|1|person who runs a bank}}

+

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing, derivation|attested=1484, W. Caxton, translation of Aesop's Fables|origins=it banco}}

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ The OED explains it as partly [[af|en|bank|-er]], formed on the money sense of ''bank'' after the French word, and partly [[bor|frm|banquier]],^(OED 2026) [[der|it|banchiere]] (13th century), from [[m|it|banco|t=bench, market stall, counter]] or [[m|it|banca]].^(OED 2026)^(MWU 2024) Etymonline also treats it as an English agent noun from ''bank'', possibly modelled on French ''banquier'',^(Etymonline) while Merriam-Webster, the Shorter Oxford and Dictionary.com derive it from the French word.^(MWU 2024)^(SOED 2002)^(Dictionary.com 2016) The Shorter Oxford compares the Anglo-Latin [[m|la-med|bancarius]].^(SOED 2002)

+

+ ==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.^(OED 2026)^(HTOED)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Before banks in the modern sense, the ''banker'' was a money changer and then, from ?1526, a moneylender.^(OED 2026) Etymonline dates the word to the 1530s,^(Etymonline) Merriam-Webster gives 1529,^(MWU 2024) and Dictionary.com 1525–35.^(Dictionary.com 2016) The modern sense, a person who owns or manages a bank, appears in a statute of 1670–1;^(OED 2026)^(HTOED) Johnson (1755) defined a banker as one who traffics in money, quoting Dryden on “the Lombard bankers”.^(Johnson 1755) In gambling the banker has been the player or keeper who holds the bank since 1706, in Susanna Centlivre's ''Basset-Table'',^(OED 2026)^(HTOED) and a card game called ''banker'' is recorded from 1874.^(OED 2026) In British football pools a ''banker'' was a result thought certain, from 1938,^(OED 2026) and Green's Dictionary of Slang records the general sense of a sure thing.^(GDoS) 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.^(GDoS)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1484 – a money changer (obsolete by 1683).^(OED 2026)

+ * ?1526 – a moneylender.^(OED 2026)

+ * 1529 – Merriam-Webster's date for the first sense.^(MWU 2024)

+ * 1670 – a person who owns or manages a bank.^(OED 2026)

+ * 1706 – the keeper of the bank in a gambling game.^(OED 2026)

+ * 1874 – a card game.^(OED 2026)

+ * 1911 – slang: a person who holds criminals' money.^(GDoS)

+ * 1938 – football pools: a result forecast as certain.^(OED 2026)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A person who owns or manages a [[bank]], or who works in banking at a senior level: ''Several bankers were questioned about the loans.''^(OED 2026)^(MWU 2024)

+ # In gambling games, the player or official who holds the bank and pays out winnings.^(OED 2026)^(SOED 2002)

+ # (British, informal) A result or person thought to be a [[certainty]], especially in a forecast or bet.^(OED 2026)^(GDoS)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[merchant banker]]

+ * [[banking]]

+

+ {{homograph|2|worker on banks; flooded river}}

+

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=a1627, T. Middleton & W. Rowley, The Changeling}}

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ This word was formed in English, probably [[af|en|bank|-er]], partly from the noun ''bank'' (of earth, a river or the sea) and partly from the verb.^(OED 2026)^(SOED 2002) The fishing senses refer to the Grand Banks off Newfoundland, fished by European expeditions since at least the 16th century.^(OED 2026)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ A labourer who makes or repairs banks, ditches or canals: a1627, in Middleton and Rowley's ''The Changeling''.^(OED 2026)^(HTOED) 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.^(OED 2026)

+

+ ==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.^(Wright 1898)^(OED 2026) 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.^(OED 2026)^(SOED 2002) 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,^(OED 2026)^(Wright 1898) and on the railways it has been an extra engine that helps a train up an incline since 1852.^(OED 2026)^(SOED 2002) A horse able to jump on and off banks too high to clear in one leap has been called a ''banker'' since 1885.^(OED 2026)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * a1627 – a labourer who makes banks or ditches.^(OED 2026)

+ * 1654 – a boat fishing on the Newfoundland banks.^(OED 2026)

+ * 1848 – Australia and New Zealand: a river in flood to the top of its banks.^(OED 2026)

+ * 1852 – an extra locomotive for climbing an incline.^(OED 2026)

+ * 1861 – a fisherman on the Newfoundland banks.^(OED 2026)

+ * 1885 – a horse that jumps on and off banks.^(OED 2026)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # (Australia, New Zealand, informal) A river or creek flooded up to or over its banks: ''After the storm the creek was running a banker.''^(OED 2026)^(SOED 2002)

+ # A locomotive that helps push or pull a train up a steep [[gradient]].^(OED 2026)^(SOED 2002)

+ # (historical) A ship or fisherman engaged in [[cod]] fishing on the Newfoundland banks.^(OED 2026)^(SOED 2002)

+ # (dialect) A labourer who digs ditches or builds earth banks.^(OED 2026)^(Wright 1898)

+

+ {{homograph|3|mason's workbench}}

+

+ {{infobox|confidence=probable|formation=derivation|attested=1700, Moxon's Mechanick Exercises}}

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is apparently [[af|en|bank|-er]], from ''bank'' in its old sense of a bench,^(OED 2026)^(SOED 2002) and the Shorter Oxford suggests it may be an alteration of [[m|it|banco|t=a sculptor's bench]].^(SOED 2002) An older ''banker'', a covering for a bench, borrowed from Anglo-Norman in the 14th century, comes from the same word for a bench.^(OED 2026)^(SOED 2002)

+

+ ==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''.^(OED 2026)^(HTOED)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ The workbench sense was widespread in dialect: Wright's ''Dialect Dictionary'' records it in Scotland, Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Somerset and Cornwall.^(Wright 1898) In Dorset a ''banker'' was also a stack of quarried Purbeck stone on the shore at Swanage, waiting to be shipped, from 1853.^(OED 2026)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1700 – a mason's or bricklayer's workbench.^(OED 2026)

+ * 1853 – Dorset: a stack of quarried stone on the shore.^(OED 2026)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A workbench on which a mason dresses stone or a sculptor models.^(OED 2026)^(SOED 2002)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[bank]]

+ * [[bench]]

+ * [[bankrupt]]

+ * [[banquet]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}