publican
The landlord of a public houseThe landlord (manager or owner) of a public house (“a bar or tavern, often also selling food and sometimes lodging; a pub”).
Meaning
6 senses(Ireland, UK)The landlord (manager or owner) of a public house (“a bar or tavern, often also selling food and sometimes lodging; a pub”).
Wirt, Schankwirt, Gastwirt
каба́тчикkabátčik, корчма́рьkorčmárʹ, шинка́рьšinkárʹ
(Commonwealth, broadly)The manager or owner of a hotel.
(Ancient Rome, historical)A tax collector, especially one working in Judea and Galilee during New Testament times (1st century C.E.) who was generally regarded as sinful for extorting more tax than was due, and as a traitor for serving the Roman Empire.
Zöllner
мы́тарьmýtarʹ
публіканиpublikany
(archaic, broadly)Any person who collects customs duties, taxes, tolls, or other forms of public revenue.
(archaic, figuratively)One regarded as extorting money from others by charging high prices.
(archaic, figuratively)A person excommunicated from the church; an excommunicant or excommunicate; also, a person who does not follow a Christian religion; a heathen, a pagan.
- the keeper of a public house
Translations
9 languagesBy meaning 1
By meaning 2
By meaning 2
Origin
Probably from public house (“(Britain) bar or tavern, often also selling food and sometimeProbably from public house (“(Britain) bar or tavern, often also selling food and sometimes lodging, pub”) or public (“open to all members of a community”) + -an (suffix forming agent nouns), apparently originally used humorously.
From Middle English publican [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman publican, pupplican, Middle French publicain, and Old French publican, publicain, pupplican (“tax collector”) (modern French publicain), and from their etymon Latin pūblicānus (“tax collector”), from pūblicum (“state revenue”) + -ānus (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’, usually indicating relationships of origin, position, or possession). Pūblicum is a noun use of the neuter form of pūblicus (“of or belonging to the people, state, or community; general, public”), ultimately from Proto-Italic *poplos (“army”).
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
plural: publicansSynonyms
11 synonyms- the keeper of a public house:tavern keeper
Word family
1 related wordsSee also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.