bursar
/ˈbəːsə
/- Under this practice, the college bursar was compelled to hand out as much money as students might request at the beginning of the semester.
- Earlier, colleagues at the university paid tribute to Mr Nicholson who worked as a bursar for three colleges over 24 years.
- The Bank awards £1,000 for each year of a bursar's degree programme.
- The bursars will be chosen on the basis of the information provided to the University through those web pages, with financial need being the major determining factor.
Origin
Late Middle English: from French boursier or (in sense 1) medieval Latin bursarius, from bursa 'bag, purse' (see bursa).
purse from Old English:
A purse gets its name from its traditional material, leather. The word came into English some time in the 11th or 12th centuries from Latin bursa, which meant ‘money bag’ and also ‘leather, animal skin’. Bursa is the source of bursar (late 16th century), disburse (mid 16th century), and reimburse (early 17th century). Despite the difference in spelling, it is also the root of sporran, a small pouch worn around the waist by Scotsmen as part of Highland dress. The Latin word developed into Irish sparán ‘purse’ and then Scottish Gaelic sporan, and was first used in English by the Scottish novelist Sir Walter Scott in the early 19th century.