▪ I. ˈbanker1 Now arch. or dial.
Also 3 bancour, banquer(e, bankewere, bankqwer, banwher, 6 banckwarre, bankard, bynker.
[a. AF. *banquer, *banker = ONF. bankier, banquier, bancquier, f. banc bench.]
A covering, generally of tapestry, for a bench or chair.
| 1311 Chart. Finchall (1837) App. 4, Iiij banker. 1395 E.E. Wills (1882) 5 An Halle, with docere, costers and bankers. c 1410 Love Bonavent. Mirr. xv. (Gibbs MS.) 38 On þe bare grounde, ffor þare hadde he neyther banker ne cuschyne. c 1420 Anturs Arth. xxxv. 2 With beddus brauderit o brode, and bankers y-dyȝte. c 1450 Holland Houlat xix. 9 Braid burdis and benkis, ourbeld vith bancouris of gold. 1483 Cath. Angl. 20 Bankqwer, Bankewere, bancarium, dorsorium. c 1485 E.E. Misc. (1855) 4 The dosers alle of camaca, The bankers alle of taffeta. 1502 Arnold Chron. (1811) 244 The hangyng bankers and cussyons in my halle. 1534 Lincolnsh. Ch. Furn. 186 A olde bankard made of an olde carpett. 1541 Lanc. Wills (1857) I. 106, Ij fformes with ij bankers. 1574 Richmond. Wills (1853) 248 A hawlinge, a bynker of wannes, and ij fox skynnes. 1660 Act 12 Chas. II, iv. Sched., Bankers of Verdure, the dozen pieces, ivl. 1870 Bottrell Trad. W. Cornwall 257 The cosy, old, panelled settle, but now without the bankers and dorsars, or the cushions, for the seats and back. 1890 W. Morris in Eng. Illustr. Mag. July 755 Some went to the chests and brought out the rich hangings, the goodly bankers and dorsars. |
▪ II. banker2
(ˈbæŋkə(r))
Also 6 bankor, 7 bancker, banquer, 7–8 banquier.
[f. bank n.3 + -er, after F. banquier, freq. used in Eng. in 17th c.]
1. The keeper or manager of a bank n.3 † a. orig. A money-changer; then, one who dealt in bills of exchange, giving drafts and making remittances. Obs.
| 1534 More On the Passion Wks. 1385/2 In the temple, he had ouerthrowen the bankers tables. 1591 Percivall Span. Dict., Banquero, a bankor, an exchanger of money, Argentarius. 1624 Heywood Gunaik. vi. 271 One Philippus, a bancker, or one that dealt in the exchange of money. c 1654 R. Flecknoe Trav. 103 in Southey Comm.-pl. Bk. Ser. ii. (1849) 328 Our English money, current with much adoe in neighbouring countries..but farther off you must go to Banquiers of your own nation, or none will take it of your hands. 1683 Pettus Fleta Min. ii. 91 Monyers..lately called Bankers. |
† b. subseq. One who also received money in deposit, and lent it upon interest, acting as an intermediary between borrowers and lenders. Obs.
| 1553 Udall Roister D. i. i. (Arb.) 11 Truely of all men he is my chiefe banker, Both for meate and money. 1611 Cotgr., Argentier..a Banker, one that lendeth, or exchangeth, money for gaine. 1611 Speed Hist. Gt. Brit. ix. xii. §64 To embogge himselfe in the Bankers and Usurers Bookes. 1660 Stanley Hist. Philos. (1701) 291/1 He deposited some Money in the hands of a Banquier. 1670 Marvell Corr. 166 (1875) II. 356 Voted that..all money in the hand of banquiers shall pay 15s. per 100l. 1757 Burke Abridgm. Eng. Hist. Wks. X. 232 The provinces [of Rome] were overrun by publicans..confiscators, usurers, bankers. |
c. Hence (in its beginnings not separable from the prec): mod. The proprietor or one of the proprietors of a private bank; the manager or one of the managing body of a joint-stock bank; in pl. a joint-stock banking company.
bankers' books, Books of Account, etc., extracts from which are admissible as evidence in a British Court of Law under ‘The Bankers' Books Evidence Act, 1876.’ banker's book also = bank pass-book. Also, banker's card = cheque card s.v. cheque, check 4.
| 1670–1 Act 22 Chas. II in Blount Law Dict. s.v., Whereas several persons, Goldsmiths and others, by taking or borrowing great sums of mony, and lending out the same again, for extraordinary hire and profit, have gained and acquired to themselves the reputation and name of Bankers. 1671 Dryden Even. Love Epil., And Banquier-like, each day Accept new Bills, and he must break, or pay. 1727 Swift State Irel. Wks. 1761 III. 174 The daily increase of bankers, who may be a necessary evil in a trading country, but so ruinous in ours. 1761 Gentl. Mag. XXXI. 601 Imposed on a young man, a banker's-clerk. 1796 Burke Regic. Peace i. Wks. VIII. 153 There were not..twelve bankers shops at that time out of London. 1843 Dickens Christmas Carol 18 Scrooge took his melancholy dinner..and beguiled the rest of the evening with his banker's-book. 1858 Ld. St. Leonards Handy-bk. Prop. Law vii. 42 You..deposit your money at a private banker's, or in the Bank of England. 1866 Crump Banking 79 As money rises in value, the balances in the hands of bankers decrease. 1967 Banker July 628/2 Belgium's largest bank, the Société Générale de Banque, has followed the British banks and introduced a cheque card on the lines of the bankers card. 1976 Economist 9 Oct. 94/2 Even if your cheque is backed by a bankers' card..you will usually be charged 4p in the {pstlg}. 1984 Which? Apr. 147/2 Pay..by cash or a cheque supported by a banker's card. |
2. Applied to a contributor to a Mons Pietatis: see bank n.3 6.
| 1646 J. Benbrigge Usura Accom. 11 Neither Banke nor Bankers (as I may call the Contributors) can conceive they suffer any losse by..lending to the poor freely: because what they even give..is lent in Usury to the Lord. |
3. One who keeps the ‘bank’ in a gambling house: the dealer, in some games of chance.
| 1826 Hor. Smith Gai. & Grav. in Casquet Lit. 1877 I. 325/1 Each banker was provided with a rateau, or rake. 1850 Bohn Handbk. Games 328 Commerce..After determining the deal, the dealer, styled also the banker, shuffles the pack. Ibid. 342 Rouge et noir..To form the game, it is necessary that there should be a banker, or tailleur (Dealer), who represents him, and players, the number of whom is unlimited. 1884 Law Times Rep. 30 Aug. 809/2 Each banker pays 1 per cent. and the punters 5s. each. |
4. A card game in which the banker divides the pack into a number of piles placed face downward, and each punter bets on the chance that the bottom card of the pile chosen by him is higher than the bottom card of the pile left to the banker.
| 1891 Daily News 3 Dec. 7/6 A boy..was charged with gambling with cards at ‘banker’. 1903 Daily Chron. 14 Mar. 7/5 He got {pstlg}150 during the voyage home on the troopship by playing ‘banker’ and ‘the crown and anchor’. |
5. In Football Pools: a result which one forecasts consistently in a series of entries. Cf. bank v.2 4 b.
| 1947 Answers 30 Aug. 9/3 This is the method of entry for a 14-match pool, allowing for six permutated matches with eight bankers. In 12- and 13-match pools, the bankers required will be six and seven respectively. 1958 Punch 27 Aug. 265/3 No pools investor of quality would seek advice from hacks who write: Wolves have banker look. |
▸ banker's draft n. (also bankers' draft) a draft issued by a branch of a bank requiring the head office, another branch, or another bank to make a payment to a third party; cf. draft n. 3b.
Typically the bank issues a banker's draft in return for payment by a customer, who uses it to make a payment (regarded as more reliable than a personal cheque) to the third party.
| 1789 P. Lovelass Familiar Explan. Bills of Exchange ix. 164 You must in certain cases demand payment on a *banker's draft within an hour. 1885 Manitoba Daily Free Press (Electronic text) 2 May A banker's draft..amounting to $1,020. 1917 F. Escher Foreign Exchange Explained iv. 20 The buyer here has got to go to his banker and get a banker's draft..and send that. 2000 M. Blake 24 Karat Schmooze (2001) xxxii. 367 Like I'd accept a cheque off you? I'd need a banker's draft at the very least. |
▪ III. banker3
(ˈbæŋkə(r))
[f. bank n.1 + -er1.]
1. a. [Cf. F. banquier in same sense.] A ship employed in cod-fishing on the Bank of Newfoundland.
| 1666 Lond. Gaz. No. 107/1 Who in Crusing, lighted upon a French Banker which he took. 1710 Ibid. No. 4712/3 A French Banker of fourteen Guns, laden with Fish, arrived there from Newfoundland. 1769 in Falconer Dict. Marine. 1815 in J. Q. Adams Duplicate Lett. (1822) 219 Those descriptions of vessels are not so valuable as the bankers, more particularly those that go from the District of Maine, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. 1880 Harper's Mag. Aug. 350/1 The long voyages of the bankers. 1960 Atlantic Advocate Nov. 30 New vessels—craft of fifty tons or less, and less than half the size of latter-day bankers. |
b. A fisherman on the Bank of Newfoundland.
| 1861 Harper's Mag. Mar. 461/2 On the banks of Newfoundland..some of the old bankers predicted a gale. 1907 J. G. Millais Newfoundland vii. 154 The fishermen of all lands have to encounter the perils of the deep, but none have to face the risks that the ‘bankers’ do. |
2. A labourer who makes banks of earth, ditches, etc. (Chiefly used in the eastern counties of England.)
| 1795 Gentl. Mag. 632 In the fen countries the labourers are denominated bankers. a 1821 in Times 25 Aug. (1870) 4/6 A poor man, a witness in court, said in answer to the same question [What he was?] ‘a banker.’ The Judge..remarked, ‘We cannot have any absurdity.’ 1873 Peacock in N. & Q. Ser. iv. XII. 274 Some ‘bankers’ who were engaged in widening a drain. |
3. Hunting. A horse which can jump on and off field banks too large to be cleared. (Cf. fencer.)
Generally with qualification, as ‘In following the hounds in Devonshire, you must ride a good banker.’
4. (in Australia). A river full to the brim.
| 1890 Cassell's Picturesque Australasia III. 175 The Murrumbidgee was running a ‘banker’—water right up to the banks. 1936 M. Franklin All that Swagger x. 88 Every stream Delacy..met was a banker. 1936 I. L. Idriess Cattle King xvi. 162 Occasionally a river or creek in a raging banker would defeat the little time-tables of man. |
5. banker (engine), a locomotive used to assist in taking a heavy load up a steep slope. (Cf. bank-engine, bank n.1 13.)
| 1907 Westm. Gaz. 3 Dec. 7/2 A ‘banker’ engine had been fixed to the rear of the mineral train to help to take the load up a steep incline. After going some 300 yards the ‘banker’ was cast off. |
▪ IV. ˈbanker4
[f. bank n.2 bench; in senses a, b. perh. a perversion of It. banco a (statuary's) bench.]
a. A wooden bench used in bricklaying for dressing bricks. b. A stone bench used by masons for hewing on. banker-mark (see quots. 1888 and 1928). c. A local name for a pile of Purbeck stone from the quarry.
| 1677 Moxon Mech. Exerc. (1703) 246 A Banker, to cut the Bricks upon, which is a piece of Timber about six foot long..fixt..about three foot high from the Floor. 1793 Smeaton Edystone L. §167 note, A Banker in a mason's yard is a square stone of a suitable size, made use of as a work bench. 1832 Carlyle Remin. (1881) I. 46 The Master-builder..once laid a shilling on his ‘banker.’ 1881 Daily News 5 Sept. 6/3 The immense masses of stone called ‘bankers’ that line Swanage shore. 1885 Harper's Mag. Jan. 244/1 The stone..has to be removed from the ‘bankers’ in carts. 1888 T. W. Whitley in Leamington Spa Courier 11 Aug. 7/6 Each man as he finishes his work at the banker, places his mark upon the stone before it leaves the shed. The banker is the stone bed or bench upon which a mason works... These marks have hence been called banker marks, and perhaps the name is more appropriate than that of masons marks. 1910 Encycl. Brit. III. 319/2 Banker-marks are..to be found on all old buildings of consequence, ecclesiastical or otherwise. 1928 G. G. Coulton Art & Reformation viii. 143 ‘Banker-marks’, that is, the mason's sign-manual which he set on his finished stone before it left the banker, or working-bench. |