English: occupational name for a scribe or secretary, originally a
member of a minor religious order who undertook such duties. The word
clerc denoted a member of a religious order, from Old English
cler(e)c ‘priest’, reinforced by Old French
clerc. Both
are from Late Latin
clericus, from Greek
klerikos, a
derivative of
kleros ‘inheritance’, ‘legacy’, with reference
to the priestly tribe of Levites (see
Levy) ‘whose inheritance
was the Lord’. In medieval Christian Europe, clergy in minor orders
were permitted to marry and so found families; thus the surname could
become established. In the Middle Ages it was virtually only members
of religious orders who learned to read and write, so that the term
clerk came to denote any literate man.
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