Other forms: tellers
A teller is the bank clerk who serves customers at a counter. The bank teller, ask the teller, a teller window.
It is chiefly American; British banks say cashier for the same job. A teller is also somebody who counts votes at an election, which is the older sense and is still the official title in the British Parliament — the tellers announce the division result. And a teller is somebody who tells a story: a teller of tales. Note automated teller machine, which is where ATM comes from.
1nountellerThe bank clerk who serves customers at a counter.
“The bank teller counted out the notes and slid them under the glass.”
synonyms: cashier
2nounvotesSomebody who counts votes.
“The tellers counted the votes twice to make sure the result was right.”
teller is a counter or narrator.
Middle English tellere comes from tell, which meant to count before it meant to narrate — the same sense that survives in all told and in the German zählen, to count. A teller counts, and telling a story is recounting it.
Middle English
tellere — one who counts or enumerates; one who recounts or relates; teller
English, today
teller
From Middle English tellere (“one who counts or enumerates; one who recounts or relates; teller”), equivalent to tell + -er.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA