A ledger (from the English dialect forms liggen or leggen, to lie or lay; in sense adapted from the Dutch substantive logger), is the principal book for recording transactions. Originally, the term referred to a book remaining regularly in one place, and so it was used of the copies of the Scriptures and service books kept in a church. According to Charles Wriothesley's Chronicle (1538):
- the curates should provide a booke of the bible in Englishe, of the largest volume, to be a lidger in the same church for the parishioners to read on.
It is an application of this original meaning that is found in the commercial usage of the term for the principal book of account in a business house, the general ledger or nominal ledger (see also bookkeeping) and also in the terms purchase ledger and sales ledger. Apart from these applications to various forms of books, the word is used for
- a small line immediately above or below the musical staff to contain a note such as middle C on the leger line just below the a staff with a treble clef, or an octave higher than concert A, or Hi A on the highland bagpipe, just above the staff with a treble clef. (often spelled leger)
- the horizontal timbers in a scaffold lying parallel to the face of a building, which support the "put logs" (also known by ligger);
- a flat stone to cover a grave, often inscribed as a memorial;
- a stationary form of tackle and bait in angling.
In the form "lieger", the term was formerly frequently applied to a "resident", as distinguished from an "extraordinary" ambassador.
