An example is found in The Parliamentary Debates of the Australian House of Representatives, 1928: The phrase appears in English in Australia soon after the first use in the USA and again this probably ultimately derived from Germany. It is possible that the English usage came from a later and separate coinage, but unlikely. The German word 'Erbsenzähler' (Erbsen = beans and zähler = counter) was used in print by Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen in Simplicissimus', 1668, with the same 'pedantic accountant' meaning that we now use. However, it is likely that the expression wasn't coined in English but is a translation from German. The Gentleman at the Adjacent Desk 'I suppose that Promoted in the quartermaster's department. The earliest modern reference I can find to the use of 'bean counter' with this meaning is in the US newspaper The Fort Wayne News And Sentinel, February 1919, in an article titled The Bean Counter: Then, lastly, we get to bean counters, that is, 'accountants'. Registry Clerk Stanley Treser has invented This was followed by bean counters, that is, 'machines that count beans', which meaning is cited in the Pennsylvania newspaper The New Castle News, March 1916:

walked over to the bean counter where he again busied himself putting up packages for the evening trade. The Clerk, seeing himself worsted by numbers. The US newspaper the Lewiston Evening Journal referred to these in June 1907: Nevertheless, I'll plough on and try to sort the leguminosae from the chaff.īean counters, that is, 'counters where beans were sold', came first. This variability can lead to some confusion when scanning old newspaper records and other references. Added to that, our inventive predecessors used machines to count beans - and there's no need to tell you what they called them. Before the first hapless accountant was called a 'bean counter' the phrase was also used as the name of a place where beans were sold, especially in the USA where 'pork and bean counters' were commonplace in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

The common usage these days is as a name for a rather pedantic accountant, the implication being that, while most of us are content to buy beans by the bag, fussy accountants want to know exactly how many they are paying for. When researching the expression 'bean counter' there is a difficulty - the term has several different meanings. What's the origin of the phrase 'Bean counter'?

Food and drink What's the meaning of the phrase 'Bean counter'?Ī disparaging term for an accountant, or anyone excessively concerned with statistical records or accounts.

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