Religion and rite

Le clergé and the « clerk » behind a bank counter are the same word, and the road between them is one of the neatest in English. Behind both stands late Latin clericus, from Greek kleros, a lot or an allotted share — the portion that fell to someone by lot. Clericus came through old French as clerc, and in medieval England it named a man in holy orders, which in practice meant the only man in the room who could read, write and keep a record. The job then did the rest. Because clerics kept the accounts, the word slid off the person and onto the task, and by the time reading was general « clerk » had stopped naming a churchman at all: the bank clerk, the clerk of the court, and « clerical work », which sits beside « clerical collar » without either of them noticing the other. French kept the two sides apart. Le clergé is the body of ministers; le clerc shrank to a single office, un clerc de notaire, and to one set phrase — il ne faut pas être grand clerc pour comprendre, you need be no great expert to see it.