- cleric (n.)
- 1620s, from Late Latin clericus "clergyman, priest" (4c.), literally "belonging to the clerus;" from Ecclesiastical Greek klerikos, "belonging to the clergy," originally "pertaining to an inheritance," but in Christian use "pertaining to the ecclesiastical order," from kleros "lot, allotment, piece of land, heritage," which was in Church use from 2c. (see clerk). A word taken up in English after clerk took its modern meaning.