3 ms·
For me it sounds like a real word, but refers to a tax collector (with similar connotations as "collaborator", though not quite "quisling".)
by ptaipale 12y ago
For me it sounds like a real word, but refers to a tax collector (with similar connotations as "collaborator", though not quite "quisling".)
- ptaipale 12y agoSurprised that people dislike this comment. This is a meaning for "publican" much older than pubs, and the also the meaning of "publican" as described in Wikipedia [0] and as many of us have learned at school about Gospel of Luke (where this role of a despised tax collector or collaborator with the occupying Roman empire was at heart of the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican). [0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Publican http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Publican [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharisee_and_the_Publican http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharisee_and_the_Publican