client: [14] The original status of a client was rather lowly: he was someone who was at another’s beck and call, and dependent on them. The word comes from Latin cliēns, an alteration of an earlier cluēns, the present participle of the verb cluēre ‘listen, follow, obey’; hence someone who was cliēns was always listening out for another’s orders, unable to take independent action (in ancient Rome it meant specifically a plebeian under the protection of a nobleman).
That sense is preserved in such English expressions as ‘client state’. The word’s more modern senses have developed through ‘person on whose behalf a lawyer acts’ in the 15th century to simply ‘customer’ in the 17th century.
client (n.)
late 14c., from Anglo-French clyent (c. 1300), from Latin clientem (nominative cliens) "follower, retainer," perhaps a variant of present participle of cluere "listen, follow, obey" (see listen); or, more likely, from clinare "to incline, bend," from suffixed form of PIE root *klei- "to lean" (see lean (v.)).
The ground sense apparently is of one who leans on another for protection. In ancient Rome, a plebian under protection of a patrician (called patronus in this relationship; see patron); in English originally "a lawyer's customer," by c. 1600 extended to any customer.
双语例句
1. Enviros Consulting has a client base of more than 2,000 organisations worldwide.
EnvirosConsulting公司在全世界拥有逾2,000家组织机构的客户群。
来自柯林斯例句
2. When her deal is done, the client emerges with her purchase.
交易完成后，委托人会出现并将她购买的东西交给她。
来自柯林斯例句
3. If anyone wants me, I'm at lunch with a client.
有人找我，就说我在跟客户吃午餐。
来自柯林斯例句
4. Now and then I referred a client to him.
我不时地介绍客户给他。
来自柯林斯例句
5. Mr Milner persuaded the federal prosecutors not to lock up his client.