Counter

How to spell counter

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce counter

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does counter mean?

1. nounA long flat surface in a kitchen, shop, or bank on which goods are prepared or business is done.
2. verbTo respond to an argument or action with an opposing one.
3. nounA small disc or token used for keeping score or as a piece in board games.

Counter in a sentence

• noun

  She wiped the kitchen counter after preparing dinner.

• verb

  The lawyer moved quickly to counter the prosecution's main claim.

• noun

  Each player moved a coloured counter along the board.

• noun

  The customer placed her groceries on the counter to be scanned.

• verb

  The company lowered its prices to counter a rival's new offer.

• noun

  Each turn she slid a plastic counter one space forward.

Where does counter come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Counter is really two related stories wearing one spelling. The shop and kitchen sense arrived through Old French as comptoir or counteor, a word for the table or board on which money was counted, built on the Latin verb computare, meaning 'to reckon or calculate', from com- 'together' and putare 'to think or settle'. That literal 'counting table' gradually became the long flat surface in a bank, shop, or kitchen where business and food are done. The other family of meanings, such as to counter an argument or to move counter to a trend, comes from the Latin contra, meaning 'against' or 'opposite', which English absorbed both as a standalone word and as a productive prefix. Over the centuries the two strands settled on the same modern spelling, which is why one tidy word can mean a serving surface, a small gaming disc, and the act of pushing back against something.

How the word is built

• count (from Latin computare: to reckon/calculate)
• -er (agent/thing suffix); the 'opposing' senses draw on Latin contra (against)