Other forms: clerks
A clerk is an office or shop worker who deals with papers, records and customers. A filing clerk, a booking clerk, the clerk of the court.
The pronunciation is the thing to know: CLARK in British English, CLURK in American, and the British form is why Clark and Clerk are the same surname. In American English clerk also means a shop assistant, which British English does not — a shop clerk sounds American to a British ear. The clerk of the court and the clerk of works are formal titles with real authority behind them, and are not junior positions at all.
1nounclerkAn office worker who handles records and paperwork.
“The clerk found the file in about a minute.”
2nounshopIn American English, a shop assistant.
“The clerk rang up the total.”
3nounofficialAn official who keeps the records of a court or council.
“The clerk of the court read out the charges.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
clerk is an office worker.
Latin clericus meant a member of the clergy, from Greek klerikos. In the Middle Ages clergymen were often the only people who could read and write, so the word for a priest became the word for anybody who kept records — and clerical still means both.
Proto-Indo-European
*kelh₂-
Ancient Greek
κληρικός — of the clergy
Latin
clēricus — priest, clergyman, cleric”, also generally “learned man, clerk
Old English
clerc
Middle English
clerc
English, today
clerk
Built from
From Middle English clerc, from Old English clerc, from Latin clēricus (“priest, clergyman, cleric”, also generally “learned man, clerk”), from Ancient Greek κληρικός (“of the clergy”), from κλῆρος (“lot, inheritance”, originally “shard used in casting lots”). a doublet of cleric. Compare typologically дьяк (akin to дья́кон).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA