Etymology
Just like the word 'account' can be traced back to 'count' or 'counting', the word 'teller' can be traced back to counting as well. The romance word 'count' (French 'compter', Italian 'contare', Spanish 'contar', and that also resurfaces in the word 'computer') has its Germanic counterpart in 'tellen' (Dutch) and 'zählen' (German). Linked to this word is also the verb 'to pay', which in Dutch is 'betalen', and in German 'zahlen'. The word 'teller' therefore refers to both 'someone (something) counting' and 'someone (something) paying out'.
The same pair of 'count' and 'tell' are seen in English with 'recounting a story' or 'telling a story' having the same meaning, albeit with a different coloration. To recount (count again) is 'her-tellen' in Dutch and 'erzählen' in German.
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Famous quotes containing the word etymology:
“The universal principle of etymology in all languages: words are carried over from bodies and from the properties of bodies to express the things of the mind and spirit. The order of ideas must follow the order of things.”
—Giambattista Vico (1688–1744)
“Semantically, taste is rich and confusing, its etymology as odd and interesting as that of “style.” But while style—deriving from the stylus or pointed rod which Roman scribes used to make marks on wax tablets—suggests activity, taste is more passive.... Etymologically, the word we use derives from the Old French, meaning touch or feel, a sense that is preserved in the current Italian word for a keyboard, tastiera.”
—Stephen Bayley, British historian, art critic. “Taste: The Story of an Idea,” Taste: The Secret Meaning of Things, Random House (1991)