Cashier (n.) a person employed to receive, count, and record money in a shop or bank, or to perform duties at a checkout. The term can also describe someone who handles payments professionally, as in a cashiering role. It denotes a job function centered on money handling and customer service in retail or financial settings.
"The cashier scanned my items and handed me the receipt."
"She works as a cashier at the grocery store on weekends."
"Please give your payment to the cashier at the front desk."
"The cashier lied to a customer, which led to an investigation."
Cashier comes from the Old French word casseier, from casse ‘box, case, chest,’ from Vulgar Latin cassārium. The term evolved into casseier in Middle French and entered English in the 14th–15th centuries to denote a person who dispenses money or keeps a treasury, particularly in a shop or market. The spelling shift to cashier aligns with pronunciation changes over time, reflecting the modern stress pattern on CAShier (first syllable). Historically, the role relates to money handling, counting, and record-keeping. Over centuries, as commerce and retail practices expanded, “cashier” refined from a generic money-keeper to the specific at-the-counter position we know today, balancing customer transactions, returning change, and maintaining receipts. The word’s semantic domain also broadened in corporate contexts to mean someone who handles payments or processes transactions, especially in retail and banking environments. First known English usages appear in merchant and toolkit lexicons from the late medieval period, strengthening as standardized retail operations grew in the Early Modern era. The term’s pronunciation stabilized around /ˈkæ.ʃɪər/ in varieties of English, with secondary syllabic emphasis on the first syllable and a reduced vowel sound in unstressed syllables, a pattern that persists in contemporary usage.
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Words that rhyme with "Cashier"
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In US English, say /ˈkæ.ʃɪər/ with the first syllable stressed. The second syllable begins with a sounded /ɪ/ or a near-schwa and glides toward a rhotic or non-rhotic ending depending on accent (US typically rhotic: /-ɪər/; UK/AU often /-ɪə/). Mouth position: lips relaxed, top teeth lightly touch bottom lip for the /æ/; the /ʃ/ is a pressed mid-palate sound; the /ɪ/ is a short, lax vowel; end with a light, quick /ɚ/ or /əː/ resonance in faster speech. For audio references, you can compare to a standard dictionary audio sample.
Common errors: misplacing stress (pronouncing it as CA-shier with wrong stress), and misproducing the second syllable as a pure /ə/ or /ɜr/ in US. Another frequent error is pronouncing /ʃɪər/ as /ʃeər/ or /ʃɪɚ/ with a too-rhotic ending in non-rhotic contexts. Correction: keep stress on the first syllable /ˈkæ/; articulate /ʃ/ clearly, then use a lax /ɪ/ or /ɪə/ depending on accent, finishing with a light, quick vowel like /ə/ or /ɚ/; practice with minimal pairs to lock in the glide and vowel quality.
In US English, /ˈkæ.ʃɪər/ with a rhotic ending; UK/AU typically /ˈkæ.ʃɪə/ with a non-rhotic ending and a longer second vowel quality; AU often sits between, with a slightly more prominent /ɪə/ diphthong in certain regional variants. Vowel length varies; US tends toward a shorter /ɪ/ before the /ə/ glide, UK/AU often show a fuller /ɪə/. The /r/ may be pronounced in US but omitted or weakened in many UK and AU varieties, especially in non-rhotic speech. Listen for the second syllable’s nucleus to identify the variant. IPA references help calibrate the subtle vowel shifts.
The challenge lies in the /æ/ versus /a/ quality in the first vowel and the /ʃ/ followed by a short, light second syllable vowel that can blur in rapid speech. The ending /ɪər/ or /ɪə/ involves a subtle glide that can collapse into /ər/ or /ə/ in casual speech. Mouth movements must map quickly: open jaw for /æ/, then quick /ʃ/ production, then a light, unobtrusive second vowel. Precision in the vowel-to-consonant transition and avoiding vowel reduction in the second syllable are key.
A distinctive feature is the shifting vowel quality between /æ/ and the following /ʃ/ onset; the second syllable can vary from /ɪər/ to /ɪə/ depending on accent, and the /r/ is prominent in rhotic accents or muted in non-rhotic ones. The stress pattern is fixed on the first syllable, but in rapid speech, the second syllable can compress, making the sequence /ʃɪə/ or /ʃɪər/ sound like a single blended syllable. This word also invites attention to clean /ʃ/ articulation immediately before the vowel.
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