ledger

Reading level: hard

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

  1. noun a record in which commercial accounts are recorded
  2. noun an accounting journal as a physical object

Etymology

From Middle English liggere, ligger, leger (“large breviary; beam, plank; dweller, inhabitant”), from liggen, leggen, variants of līen (“to lie down; to bow, kneel, prostrate; to die; to be located (somewhere); to remain in place, stay”), from Old English liċġan (“to lie down; to be situated”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *legʰ- (“to lie down”). The word is cognate with Saterland Frisian Lägger (“floor board, joist, plank”), West Frisian lêger (“beam, plank”), Dutch legger (“daybook; layer”) (from leggen (“to lay”), liggen (“to lie down”)), and is related to English ledge, lie (“to be prostrate”). The verb is derived from the noun.

In classic literature

Synonyms

leger, account book, book of account, book

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