Professions: Clerk/Funcionário de escritório

English/Inglês
Clerk

Portuguese/Português
Funcionário de escritório/administrativo

Explanation/Explicação
This month we will be talking about professions. Some are quite easy to translate such as doctor, nurse even translator, but others might be harder and lead to errors.

This week’s profession is clerk. This is one of the words that may refer to several professions. Usually it refers to someone that works in an office and keeps records, files etc. In a court it is also used to refer the person who keeps the records. In the Clergy is used to name a cleric. However in different countries may be used to refer to different professions, for example in the US and Canada it is also used to refer to a hotel receptionist or a shop keeper. In the UK it is also used to refer to a Senior Officer of the House of Commons.
In Portuguese it is translated as “funcionário de escritório/administrativo” in the case of the office worker, “escrivão” for the court clerk, “recepcionista” for the hotel receptionist and “empregado” in case of the shop keeper. As for the Clergy it is “clérigo”.

Collins Dictionary Online wrote:
Clerk

noun
1. a worker, esp in an office, who keeps records, files, etc
2. See clerk to the justices
3. an employee of a court, legislature, board, corporation, etc, who keeps records and accounts, etc ⇒ a town clerk
4. Also called: clerk of the House (in the UK) a senior official of the House of Commons
5. Also called: clerk in holy orders a cleric
6. (US & Canadian) short for salesclerk
7. Also called: desk clerk (US & Canadian) a hotel receptionist
8. (archaic) a scholar

Dicionários Infopédia Online wrote:
clerk

nome
1. (escritório) empregado; funcionário
2. Estados Unidos da América rececionista
3. Estados Unidos da América (loja) vendedor; empregado de balcão
4. RELIGIÃO formal clérigo
5. arcaico letrado; erudito
6. (registos) escrivão

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