It's a great word but it's not one I've heard often in person, usually people just say landlord.

(I live in Southern England, and this comment is only from my experience.)

Ireland here we use publican.

Publican is common in Australia.

Semi-OT, there's an excellent bar/restaurant in Chicago named Publican. If you're ever in Chicago, you should check it out.

For me it sounds like a real word, but refers to a tax collector (with similar connotations as "collaborator", though not quite "quisling".)

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