financier

noun

fi·​nan·​cier ˌfi-nən-ˈsir How to pronounce financier (audio)
fə-ˌnan-
ˌfī-
plural financiers
1
: one who deals with finance and investment on a large scale
… they found a wealthy financier to back their own chain of big-box hardware stores …Patricia Sellers
When panic struck, Wall Street financiers did take advantage of the collapsing financial markets to enhance their own profits and gobble up corporations.William Greider
2
: one who specializes in raising and expending public monies
… John Law, the Scottish financier who for a time controlled the French economy and was largely responsible for the forced colonization of Louisiana …Stanley Kauffmann
3
: a small sweet usually rectangular cake made with brown butter, egg whites, and almonds
… the classic French pastry called the financier is exquisitely refined. It is springy, sweet and nutty with an exterior that's as crisp as an eggshell.Amanda Hesser
I made my financiers in a mini muffin pan. Traditionally they were baked in a rectangular mold that resembles a bar of gold.Ann Christenson

Examples of financier in a Sentence

A group of powerful financiers bought out the company.
Recent Examples on the Web
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With locations in Folsom and Roseville, Julian’s Patisserie & Café’s husband and wife team Julian and Bailey Jimenez will be presenting a Casselman plum-almond financier with plum compote and basil mascarpone chantilly. Sean Timberlake, Sacbee.com, 4 Sep. 2026 The industrial moral economy of Fordism became especially attractive in Italy, Germany, Russia and Japan—all countries wishing to escape the grip of British and American financiers. Literary Hub, 4 Sep. 2026 Barbera has come under fire for programming Khrzhanovsky’s DAU, with critics tying the director, the film’s financiers and Greek-Russian actor Teodor Currentzis to Putin’s Russia. Scott Roxborough, HollywoodReporter, 2 Sep. 2026 Malkovich lost most of his life savings in 2008 in financier Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, a blow that forced him, for a time, to work more and focus on jobs that paid. Los Angeles Times, 31 Aug. 2026 See All Example Sentences for financier

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from French, going back to Middle French, "person who manages monetary affairs," from finance "money, resource" + -ier -ier — more at finance entry 1

Note: The reason for the pastry name has not been clarified. A pastry called financier is apparently first mentioned in Le nouveau pâtissier-glacier français et étranger (Paris, 1865) by the French pastry chef and culinary historian Pierre Lacam (1836-1902). Lacam actually gives two recipes: one, called financier, for an almond cake baked in a flat fluted mold, and another, called financières, for an almond cake baked in a savarin mold pan, served with vanilla icing and apricot in the center. Decades later, in Le mémorial historique et géographique de la pâtisserie, 5e édition (Paris, 1900), Lacam notes that the savarin mold version garnished with fruit, which he now calls financier, was created by "Lasnes, rue Saint-Denis." The other version, now called la financière, baked in a Genoa cake mold pan, "was created in Rennes and has always been popular in Brittany" ("La financière a étée créée à Rennes et a toujours eu sa vogue en Bretagne"). According to a story appearing in recent publications (see references in the English and French Wikipedia articles), the financier was revived around 1890 by a pastry maker named Lasne. As his shop was near the Bourse, much of his clientele was made up of financiers wishing to eat a pastry on the go without soiling their fingers. Lasne hence thought of changing the financier to a cake without fruit or icing and baking it in a rectangular mold suggesting that of a gold ingot. Of course, this explanation, true or not, in no way accounts for the pastry's original name. Moreover, as the editors of the French Wikipedia point out, rue Saint-Denis, where Lacam places Lasne's patisserie, was not near the Bourse in the Palais Brongniart, and his location on that street apparently only existed between 1828 and 1850—not around 1890.

First Known Use

1601, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Time Traveler
The first known use of financier was in 1601

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Cite this Entry

“Financier.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/financier. Accessed 7 Sep. 2026.

Kids Definition

financier

noun
fin·​an·​cier
ˌfin-ən-ˈsi(ə)r
fə-ˌnan-
ˌfī-nan-
: a person who specializes in finance and especially in the financing of businesses

Legal Definition

financier

noun
fi·​nan·​cier
1
: one who specializes in raising and expending public moneys
2
: one who deals with finance and investment on a large scale
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