Other forms: accountants
An accountant is the person who keeps track of an organisation's money — what came in, what went out, what is owed, what the tax bill will be. The one you ring in January with a shoebox of receipts, or the one down the corridor who knows exactly how much the department has left.
Accountants do more than add up: they prepare accounts, audit them, plan for tax and tell a business what it can afford. A chartered accountant has passed the professional exams and belongs to a body that can strike them off; the letters you meet are ACA or ACCA in Britain, CPA in America. The field is accountancy, or accounting, and the phrase behind the whole word is account for, meaning to explain where something went. Keep accountable separate: an accountant handles the numbers, while being accountable means having to answer for what you did.
1nounaccountantA person whose job is keeping, checking and reporting on financial records.
“Their accountant found an error in last year's figures.”
accountant is a financial professional.
Accountant reached English in the mid-1400s from Middle French acuntant. It is account plus -ant, the ending that turns an action into the person performing it, as in servant and assistant. An accountant is, precisely, one who accounts.
Middle French
acuntant
English, today
accountant
From Middle English -, from Middle French acuntant. Equivalent to account + ant. First attested in the mid 15th century.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA