tellern.
/ˈtɛlə/, U.S. /ˈtɛlər/ A person who or thing which tells, in various senses.† 3. Boxing slang. A telling blow. Obsolete.
1.
a. A person who relates, communicates, or announces something.fortune-teller, tale-teller, truth-teller, etc.: see the first element.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > speech > narration > [noun] > narrator
teller1340
expositora1398
accounterc1400
reporterc1405
provinoura1475
recounter1485
relator1588
relater1598
repeater1598
narrator1599
retailer1607
nomenclator1628
enarrator1632
accountant1655
relatist1656
narrater1758
narratrix1796
narratress1798
society > communication > information > action of informing > [noun] > person who
teller1340
revelatorc1443
advertiser1548
intelligencer1569
upgiver1577
declarator1583
relater1593
relator1593
informer1598
imparter1600
intelligent1602
referendary1614
informant1641
society > communication > information > announcing or proclaiming > [noun] > announcer or proclaimer
teller1340
professora1387
trumpet1447
blazerc1450
denouncer1490
trump1531
ebuccinator1542
declarer1548
proclaimer1548
announcer?1549
trumpet1549
trumpeter1581
blazoner1603
speaker1623
proclamator1650
annunciator1696
proclaimant1837
tooter1863
spruiker1893
spieler1894
1340 Ayenbite (1866) 58 Makeþ þe efter telleres ofte by yhyea[l]de foles and uor lyeȝeres.
a1375 (c1350) William of Palerne (1867) l. 334 Be no tellere of talis but trewe to þi lord.
c1384 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Douce 369(2)) (1850) Deeds xvii. 18 He is seyn for to be a tellere [L. adnuntiator] of newe deuelis.
a1425 (?a1300) Kyng Alisaunder (Linc. Inn) (1952) 1571 Teller of ieste [c1400 Laud gestour] is ofte myslike.
c1430 in K. W. Engeroff Untersuchung ‘Usages of Winchester’ (1914) 51 (MED) None of þe foure and twenty by-fore y-seide ne schal susteygne no partye yn þe court of þe Cite ne be tellere ne vndernemer of wordes in harminge of þe partye ne of þe fraunchise of þe town.
1547 W. Baldwin Treat. Morall Phylos. iii. ix. sig. O.i There is no difference betwene a great teller of tydinges, and a lyer.
1548 N. Udall et al. tr. Erasmus Paraphr. Newe Test. I. Mark xii. 76 We knowe ryght well that thou arte a teller of trouthe, and feareste no man.
1552 R. Huloet Abcedarium Anglico Latinum Teller of fortune, ominator, uel trix.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Antony & Cleopatra (1623) i. ii. 88 The Nature of bad newes infects the Teller . View more context for this quotation
1678 T. D'Urfey Trick for Trick i. i. 10 But I must confess t'ee, under the Rose here, I did stretch a little, as a good teller of a Story shou'd.
1763 A. Smith Lect. Rhetoric & Belles Lettres (1963) xxi. 115 The teller of wonderful or lamentable stories is disagreeable because he endeavours to pawn them upon us for true ones.
1791 A. F. T. Woodhouselee Ess. Princ. Transl. xii. 200 The beginning of ancient tales is not just what came into the head of the teller: no, they always began with some saying of Cato.
1825 C. Lamb in London Mag. Aug. 601 The teller of a mirthful tale has latitude allowed him.
1874 L. Stephen Hours in Libr. 1st Ser. 231 He had been a teller of stories before he was well in breeches.
1906 Punch 10 Oct. 270/1 So shining are her virtues as a teller of tales that we must needs overlook apparent errors of judgment.
1947 Sat. Rev. Lit. (U.S.) 17 May 24/2 The teller of the story..had put away his books on mathematics, removed his new clericals, and slipped into white flannels.
1973 G. Butler Coffin for Pandora viii. 192 You're a teller of tales, young lady... Quite a Scheherazade.
2010 M. Somerville & T. Perkins Singing the Coast ii. 44 If the listener does not respond to the story and pass the story on, the teller is rendered silent.
b. A thing that communicates, announces, or signifies something, or by means of which something is made known.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > instruments for measuring time > clock > [noun] > part(s) of > hand(s)
pinOE
hand1563
teller1574
index1594
finger1603
palm1629
hour-hand1669
minute hand1720
index-hand1742
second-hand1760
moment-hand1766
little hand1829
big hand1849
set-hands1884
sweep hand1948
sweep second1948
1574 T. Newton tr. G. Gratarolo Direct. Health Magistrates & Studentes 29 For smellinge is the discouerer and token teller of tast.
a1660 T. Powell Humane Industry (1661) i. 1 (heading) Ωπολογικη: or The Invention of Dyals, Clocks, Watches, and other Time-tellers.
1677 F. Bampfield All in One 96 The Chaldee word for an hour comes from an Hebrew root, which doth signifie he looked, he beheld; Because, Men in their actions do intend the hour as it passeth away: The Teller, or Nuntiatrix of Time.
1898 G. S. Tyack Bk. about Bells i. 8 The use of bells as tellers of the passing time.
1920 W. N. Thomas Surveying i. 2 At every 10th link from each end of the chain a brass tag or teller is fastened to the small central connecting ring.
2004 Stardust (Internat. ed.) June 105/2 In a good relationship, either individual shouldn't feel the need to stray. If someone does, it's a teller.
c. spec. Each of the strokes rung on a church bell at the end of a knell marking the death of a person, the number of strokes being often conventionally understood to indicate whether the person is a man, woman, or child.The suggestion made in the source of quot. 1868 that the proverbial expression nine tailors make a man (see tailor n.1 1b) originates in the alteration of teller into tailor is not borne out by the evidence; indeed earlier evidence for the use of either form with reference to bell-ringing is lacking, although the practice of using the number of strokes of a bell to convey information of this kind is documented from the 18th cent.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > death > obsequies > [noun] > bell > knell, peal, or stroke
knellc961
soul-knell?a1300
soul-knoll?c1500
death knell1773
dumb peal1799
teller1868
society > communication > indication > signalling > audible signalling > ringing of bells as signal > [noun]
pealc1390
ring1699
teller1868
1868 W. L. Blackley in Churchman's Shilling Mag. 3 247 The strokes told or counted at the end of a knell were called, from their office, tellers; this term, again, was corrupted into tailors, from their sounding at the end or tail of the knell.
1876 T. North Church Bells Leics. 106 At Frisby, and elsewhere, these tolls [for the dead] are called ‘tellers’.
1910 Trans. Shropshire Archæol. & Nat. Hist. Soc. 33 13 After a pause it [sc. the bell] was tolled for ten minutes, and after another pause the tellers were given: 9 for a child, 9+10 for a woman, 9+10+11 for a man.
1975 A. Cronk Wealden Rector i. 2 He would swing the bell down once more and conclude by chiming the nine tellers, three times three, to signify the gender of the deceased.
2.
a. Originally: one of the four officers of the Exchequer responsible for the receipt and payment of moneys. Later more generally: a person who counts or keeps tally of anything, esp. money; (in later use chiefly) a person employed to deal with customers' transactions in a bank, typically receiving or paying out money (cf. cashier n. a).The Exchequer office of teller was abolished in 1834, the duties being subsequently performed by the Comptroller of the Exchequer.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > number > enumeration, reckoning, or calculation > [noun] > one who counts, reckons, or calculates
reckoner?c1225
counterc1369
calculatorc1380
calculerc1400
teller1434
logist1570
count-caster1573
account caster1580
caster1598
computatist1611
computant1621
accountant1622
computor1669
digitizer1767
enumerator1856
society > trade and finance > management of money > keeping accounts > [noun] > keeper of accounts
accountera1400
teller1434
countrel?1475
reasoner1509
accountant1539
chequer-man?1577
computist1583
rational1610
actuary1769
account keeper1797
tallyman1857
number cruncher1971
bean-counter1975
society > trade and finance > management of money > [noun] > one who has charge of or manages money > one who manages public money > specific officials
chamberlain1415
teller1434
under-treasurer1447
treasurer of the king's warsc1450
vice-treasurer1541
chequer-man?1577
Clerk of the Pellsa1603
treasurer at wars1617
fiscal1652
quaestor1673
underteller1694
First Lord of the Treasury1698
Paymaster General1698
melter1758
treasurer1790
First Lord1855
apposer-
1434 in H. Nicolas Proc. & Ordinances Privy Council (1835) IV. 266 (MED) It lyked þe Kyng our soverain lord to sende his lettres of prive seal to..John Baron & Will Borough, þanne tellers of þe receite of þeschequier of our soverain lord.
c1450 tr. G. Deguileville Pilgrimage Lyfe Manhode (Cambr.) (1869) 144 (MED) A fals lokyere and a fals monyere and a fals tellere of pens.
1481 in J. P. Collier Househ. Bks. John Duke of Norfolk & Thomas Earl of Surrey (1844) 9 John Fytzherberd, one of the tellers of the money.
1535 Act 27 Hen. VIII c. 14 §2 Euery porte..where no tellers nor packers at this present time be.
1576 G. Gascoigne Steele Glas sig. H.iiii When Siluer sticks not on the Tellers fingers.
a1652 R. Brome Court Begger i. i. sig. N8, in Five New Playes (1653) To put you to some Tellers Clearke to teach you Ambo-dexterity in telling money.
1664 Keymer's Observ. Dutch Fishing 7 Shee [sc. the Herring-Buss] imployeth..at Land..Packers, Tellers, Dressers.
1701 J. Stanley & I. Newton Let. 21 May in I. Newton Corr. (1967) IV. 356 They sent their Porter..from time to time to summon the Tellers of the Bank to attend at the Mint.
1702 London Gaz. No. 3782/3 One of the Four Tellers of His Majesty's Exchequer.
1776 G. E. Howard Treat. Exchequer & Revenue Ireland I. ii. 22 [The vice treasurer] is to sign all receipts for money paid into the treasury, and received for him by the teller.
1821 J. W. Bayley Hist. & Antiq. Tower of London I. 127 One penny per week, which each workman and teller of coins in the said mint, agreed..to give out of their wages.
1849 Boston Med. & Surg. Jrnl. 27 June 419 He had been a defaulter in the Penn Township Bank (of which Morgan was then a teller).
1884 T. Walden in Harper's Mag. Aug. 424/2 At the entrance of the Hall..you passed the Exchequer. You may yet see over the doorway the grotesque effigies of the teller.
1905 Eng. Hist. Rev. 20 525 Right Hon. Nathaniel Clements M.P., a teller of the exchequer, and afterwards deputy vice-treasurer of Ireland, and ranger of Phœnix Park.
1929 Amer. Mercury Jan. 97/1 Retired rustics..demanding of punctilious tellers at the bank windows that their American cash be changed into ‘monkey money’.
1966 D. Wagoner Staying Alive 18 He felt like breaking a bank or jumping over a railing Into some panicky teller's cage to shout, ‘Reach for the ceiling!’
2010 South Afr. 6 Apr. 15/1 For the first three months I was a teller but as part of their management trainee programme I eventually graduated to corporate banking.
b. In a legislative assembly: a person (usually one of two or more) who counts or formally reports the number of votes cast on each side. Later also more generally: any person who counts voters or votes cast in a ballot, election, etc.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > rule or government > ruler or governor > deliberative, legislative, or administrative assembly > governing or legislative body of a nation or community > procedure of parliament or national assembly > [noun] > putting to vote > division of members to count votes > one who counts votes on
teller1605
1605 Jrnls. House of Commons (1802) 1 152/1 It belongeth to the Speaker's Place to appoint Tellers of the Number.
1669 A. Marvell Let. 20 Nov. in Poems & Lett. (1971) II. 91 The Tellers for the Ayes chanced to be very ill reckoners so that they were forced to tell severall times over.
1682 N. O. tr. N. Boileau-Despréaux Lutrin iv. 146 Let faithful tellers take the Poll, and note The Ay's and Noe's.
1733 ‘M. Freeman’ Downfal of Bribery iii. 29 Proc. How goes the Poll? Teller. Forty-eight for Trimmer; Forty-six for Standfast.
1775 E. Burke Let. 12 Jan. in Corr. (1961) III. 98 Rose Fuller was..one of the tellers on the division.
1833 R. W. Lincoln Lives Presidents of U.S. (1836) 216 Mr. Barbour, teller on the part of the Senate, and Messrs. Smith and Sergeant, tellers on the part of the House, sat at the clerk's table.
1857 J. Toulmin Smith Parish (new ed.) 62 The tellers must then give in to the Chairman the number found on each side, as agreed on between them.
1891 Hazell's Mag. Nov. 31 The tellers, one for each side being in each lobby, can be heard counting, One, Two, Three, and so on.
1957 Times 6 June 11/ [He] would have us lose some more of our traditional liberties—the rights of the voluntary ‘tellers’ outside polling stations.
1998 Daily Tel. 7 Jan. 2/7 The number of polling agents from the Yes and No campaigns was far too small to allow proper scrutiny of the tellers and ballot papers.
2011 J. Grant Mr. Speaker! (2012) x. 141 Democrat William Springer of Illinois..called for tellers to count the votes on his motion.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > fighting sports > boxing > [noun] > actions or positions
first bloodc1540
guard1601
feint1684
in holds1713
shifting1793
rally1805
muzzler1811
one-two1811
stop1812
southpaw1813
fibbing1814
leveller1814
mouther1814
ribber1814
stomacher1814
teller1814
in-fighting1816
muzzling1819
weaving1821
out-fighting1831
arm guard1832
countering1858
counter1861
clinching1863
prop1869
clinch1875
right and left1887
hook-hit1890
hook1898
cross1906
lead1906
jolt1908
swing1910
body shot1918
head shot1927
bolo punch1950
snap-back1950
counterpunch1957
counterpunching1957
Ali shuffle1966
rope-a-dope1975
1814 Sporting Mag. 43 70 He sometimes put in some good tellers on his opponent's body.
1834 W. H. Ainsworth Rookwood III. iv. ii. 245 A teller..Vos planted..upon his smeller.
Compounds
C1. General attributive in sense 2a, as teller cage, teller window, etc.
ΚΠ
1889 Wisconsin State Reg. 18 May I..took my place at the teller window. For twenty minutes business quietly proceeded.
1906 Englewood (Chicago) Times 31 Aug. 1/5 The bank room proper will be 35 feet in height... There will be ten teller cages.
1957 Life 3 June 124/2 Inside the bank, night lights dimly illuminated the pine-paneled teller counter.
1998 Industry Standard 29 June 42/1 The lone bank employee, serenely ensconced in the middle of six empty teller windows.
C2.
teller machine n. originally U.S. any machine that performs (some of) the functions of a bank teller; = ATM n. at A n. Initialisms.Cf. telling machine n. at telling n. Compounds.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > financial dealings > banking > [noun] > cash dispenser
money teller1594
cash machine1890
bank machine1920
teller machine1921
automatic teller1924
automatic teller machine1967
cash dispenser1967
automated teller machine1973
cashpoint1973
money machine1973
ATM1975
hole-in-the-wall1985
1921 Joplin (Missouri) Globe 16 Jan. 4/1 Four teller machines will be installed in the public schools here.
1948 N.Y. Times 1 Dec. 43/1 Title Guarantee and Trust Company has installed teller machines for commercial deposits in the bank's midtown office.
2013 Range News (Maleny, Queensland) (Nexis) 30 May 15 I have been teaching my 90-year-old father how to use the teller machine in Montville, at his instigation.
teller vote n. U.S. Politics (now historical) (in the House of Representatives) a vote tallied by tellers as members file past them, without the names of the members voting being recorded.In 1970, an alternative system, sometimes referred to as a recorded teller vote, was introduced, in which members submitted voting cards marked with their names to the teller, enabling a record to be kept of each member's vote. After the introduction of electronic voting in 1973, teller votes became uncommon, and in 1993 the use of teller votes without recording of names was abolished. Cf. roll-call vote n. at roll-call n. Compounds 2.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > rule or government > ruler or governor > deliberative, legislative, or administrative assembly > governing or legislative body of a nation or community > procedure of parliament or national assembly > [noun] > putting to vote > division of members to count votes > vote taken by
teller vote1875
1875 N.Y. Times 3 Feb. 1/4 If the indications afforded by the teller vote to-day do not fail, the bill will receive a two-third majority.
1924 Congress. Rec. 11 Apr. 6142/1 Is not the teller vote the highest in the committee?
1971 N.Y. Times 4 Mar. 21 (headline) First recorded teller vote is taken in the House.
1972 W. Weaver Both Your Houses vii. 99 If the outcome of a division is unsatisfactory to at least twenty members of the Committee of the Whole..they can demand a teller vote.
1990 R. A. Lee Eisenhower & Landrum-Griffin vii. 147 It was a teller vote and many congressmen were hanging back to see which way the tide was going before moving forward to vote.
2014 T. S. Purdum Idea whose Time has Come vii. 198 Smith's amendment passed 168 to 133 on a teller vote.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2015; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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