DCHP-2

bailiff DCHP-2 (July 2016)

• n. — Finance

  a person hired to repossess property.

  Type: 3. Semantic Change — In Canada bailiff may refer to someone who repossesses property, a sense that appears to be an extension from a British meaning of bailiff, i.e. "the agent of the lord of a manor, who collects his rents, etc." (OED-3, s.v. "bailiff" [3]). Other meanings of bailiff include "officer" and "magistrate" (see OED 3, s.v "bailiff" [1,2]). The term private bailiff, which is searchable on the internet with reasonable accuracy, is most prevalent in Canada according to internet domain searches (see Chart 1).
  See also Gage-5, which lists the term without any labels, COD-2, s.v. "bailiff" (2), which is marked "Cdn".