A person who examines and verifies financial accounts or attends classes without receiving credit. Someone who listens to or observes systematically.
From Latin 'auditor' meaning 'hearer' or 'listener,' from 'audire' (to hear). Originally referred to someone who listened to accounts being read aloud, as literacy was limited and financial records were often presented orally.
The connection between 'hearing' and 'auditing' reveals medieval accounting practices - before widespread literacy, financial records were literally read aloud to auditors who would listen for discrepancies. This oral tradition gave us both 'audit' and 'audience' from the same Latin root.
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