The origin of this word is contested, some deriving it from the French broier, "to grind;" others from brocarder, "to cavil, or higgled;" and others again from a trader broken, and that from the Saxon broc, "misfortune."

A broker is an agent or intermediate person appointed for transacting special business on account of another, but somewhat different from an ordinary factor in functions and responsibility. Of this class there are various descriptions, exercising employments without the smallest analogy, though all are brought under the general name of brokers; and of these the principal are, exchange-brokers, whose province is to ascertain the rates and relation of exchange between countries; stock-brokers, who negotiate transactions in the public-funds; insurance-brokers, who effect insurances on lives or property; and pawn-brokers, who advance money on goods, on the condition of being allowed to sell the goods, if the sum advanced is not repaid with interest, within a limited time.