☼ Concept Map

''publican'' ▫ᴱᴺ Entries

↩ 🔳 🔳 🔳

Primary

⁀➴

''publican'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260125204041-00-⌔

publican - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

publican (plural publicans)

🖼️ ➺

  • (chiefly UK, Ireland) The landlord (manager or owner) of a public house (“a bar or tavern, often also selling food and sometimes lodging; a pub”).
    • ✤ Synonyms: (obsolete) ale-draper, alekeep, alekeeper, (Britain) licensed victualler, (Britain) licensee, (Britain, obsolete slang) bung, taverner, tavernkeep, tavernkeeper
    • ✤ I went into a public-‘ouse to get a pint o’ beer,/The publican’e up an’sez, ‘We serve no red-coats here.’1
  • (Commonwealth, by extension) The manager or owner of a hotel.
    • ✤ Synonym: hotelier

Noun

publican (plural publicans)

  • (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.
    • ✤ Matthevv vvhiche vvas other vvyſe alſo called Leui, beyng of a Puplican made an Apoſtle, firſt of all others compoſed and vvrote in Jevvrye, the ghoſpell of Chriſte in the Hebrue tounge, […]2
    • ✤ [T]he Publicans, that is to ſaye, the cuſtomers and takers vp of tolles, […]3
    • ✤ Hovv like a favvning Publican he lookes.4
    • ✤ [I]f he [a brother who trespasses against one] neglect to heare the Church, let him be vnto thee as an heathen man, and a Publicane.5
    • ✤ [T]here was a man named Zacheus, which was the cheefe among the Publicanes, and he was rich.6
    • ✤ The provinces groaned at once under all the severity of publick imposition, and the rapaciousness of private usury. They were overrun by publicans, farmers of the taxes, agents, confiscators, usurers, bankers, those numerous and insatiable bodies, which always flourish in a burthened and complicated revenue.7
    • ✤ Now, Mrs. Varden, […] believing, moreover, that the publicans coupled with sinners in Holy Writ were veritable licensed victuallers; was far from being favourably disposed towards her visitor.8
    • ✤ He brings twelve men with him, fishermen, tillers of the soil, one a publican, all of the humbler class; and he and they make their journeys on foot, careless of wind, cold, rain, or sun.9
  • (by extension, archaic) Any person who collects customs duties, taxes, tolls, or other forms of public revenue.
    • ✤ Another ſort there be vvho vvhen they hear that all things ſhall be order’d, all things regulated and ſetl’d; nothing vvritt’n but vvhat paſſes through the cuſtom-houſe of certain Publicans that have the tunaging and the poundaging of all free ſpok’n truth, vvill ſtrait give themſelvs up into your hands, mak ‘em, & cut’em out vvhat religion ye pleaſe; […]10
    • ✤ […] I am fallen into the hands of Publicans and Sequeſtrators, and they have taken all from me, vvhat novv? let me look about me. They have left me the Sun and the Moon, Fire and vvater, a loving vvife, and many friends to pity me, and ſome to relieve me, […]11
    • ✤ Nor could the Treasury effectually restrain the chimneyman from using his powers with harshness: for the tax was farmed; and the government was consequently forced to connive at outrages and exactions such as have, in every age, made the name of publican a proverb for all that is most hateful.12
  • (figuratively, archaic)
    • One regarded as extorting money from others by charging high prices.
    • (Christianity) A person excommunicated from the church; an excommunicant or excommunicate; also, a person who does not follow a Christian religion; a heathen, a pagan.

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈpʌblɪk(ə)n/
  • Audio (Southern England): 🔊
  • (General American) IPA: /ˈpʌblək(ə)n/
  • Hyphenation: pub‧lic‧an
  • Rhymes: -ʌblɪkən

Etymology 1

Probably 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.13

Etymology 2

🖼️ ➺

From Middle English publican [and other forms],14 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”),15 ultimately from Proto-Italic ﹡poplos (“army”).

Sense 3.2 (“person excommunicated from the church; person who does not follow a Christian religion”) refers to Matthew 18:17 of the Bible:15 see the King James Version quotation under sense 1.

Printed 2026-06-28.

(echo:: @ ⌗)

Footnotes

  1. 1890, Rudyard Kipling, “Tommy”, in Barrack-Room Ballads and Other Verses, 3rd edition, London: Methuen & Co. […], published 1892, →OCLC, page 6: ↩

  2. 1549 February 10 (Gregorian calendar; indicated as 1548), Jerome, “The Paraphrase of Erasmus vpon the Gospell of Saincte Matthew. The Lyfe of Sainct Matthew […].”, in Nicolas Udall [i.e., Nicholas Udall], transl., The First Tome or Volume of the Paraphrase of Erasmus vpon the Newe Testamente, London: […] Edwarde Whitchurche, →OCLC, folio xix, recto: ↩

  3. 1549 February 10 (Gregorian calendar; indicated as 1548), Erasmus, “The Paraphrase of Erasmus vpon the Ghospell of S. Luke. The.iii. Chapter.”, in Nicolas Udall [i.e., Nicholas Udall], transl., The First Tome or Volume of the Paraphrase of Erasmus vpon the Newe Testamente, London: […] Edwarde Whitchurche, →OCLC, folio xliii, verso: ↩

  4. c. 1596–1598 (date written), W[illiam] Shakespeare, The Excellent History of the Merchant of Venice. […] (First Quarto), [London]: […] J[ames] Roberts [for Thomas Heyes], published 1600, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]: ↩

  5. 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 18:17, column 1: ↩

  6. 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Luke 19:2, column 2: ↩

  7. 1760, Edmund Burke, “An Essay towards an Abridgment of the English History. […]. Chapter III. The Reduction of Britain by the Romans.”, in [Walker King], editor, The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, new edition, volume X, London: […] [R. Gilbert] for C[harles] and J[ohn] Rivington, […], published 1826, →OCLC, book I, page 232: ↩

  8. 1841 February–November, Charles Dickens, “Barnaby Rudge. Chapter 13.”, in Master Humphrey’s Clock, volume III, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, pages 5–6: ↩

  9. 1880 November 12, Lew[is] Wallace, chapter II, in Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, book eighth, page 486: ↩

  10. 1644, John Milton, Areopagitica; a Speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc’d Printing, to the Parlament of England, London: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 27: ↩

  11. 1651, Jer[emy] Taylor, “Of Christian Sobriety”, in The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living. […], 2nd edition, London: […] Francis Ashe […], →OCLC, section VI (Of Contentedness in All Estates and Accidents), page 140: ↩

  12. 1851, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XI, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume III, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC, pages 36–37: ↩

  13. “publican, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, March 2022; “publican, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022. ↩

  14. “pū̆blicā̆n, n. (1)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007. ↩

  15. “publican, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, March 2022; “publican, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022. ↩ ↩2

Link to original

Secondary

• • •