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publican

Pronunciation: /ˈpʌblɪk(ə)n/

The English word “publican” has 6 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. The landlord (manager or owner) of a public house (“a bar or tavern, often also selling food and sometimes lodging; a pub”).
  2. The manager or owner of a hotel.
  3. 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.
  4. Any person who collects customs duties, taxes, tolls, or other forms of public revenue.
  5. One regarded as extorting money from others by charging high prices.
  6. A person excommunicated from the church; an excommunicant or excommunicate; also, a person who does not follow a Christian religion; a heathen, a pagan.

Etymology

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.

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.