[ptaipale]

Surprised that people dislike this comment. This is a meaning for "publican" much older than pubs, and the also the meaning of "publican" as described in Wikipedia [0] and as many of us have learned at school about Gospel of Luke (where this role of a despised tax collector or collaborator with the occupying Roman empire was at heart of the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican).

[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Publican [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharisee_and_the_Publican