Also 4 countour. [a. AF. countour = OF. conteor (mod.F. compteur counter, conteur recounter, narrator):—L. computātōr-em, agent-n. f. computāre to compute, COUNT.]
1. One who counts, reckons or calculates.
13[?]. MS. Cott. Calig. A. ii. f. 110 (Halliw.). Ther is no countere nor clerke Con hem recken alle.
1369. [see COUNTER sb.3 3.]
1420. Hoccleve, De Reg. Princ., 25. In my purs, so grete sommes be, That there nys counter in alle cristente Whiche that kan at ony nombre sette.
1483. Cath. Angl., 78. A Cownter, compotista.
1769. Smith, in Phil. Trans., LIX. 309. I did not even hear the feet of the four counters, who had passed behind me from the windows to the clock.
b. In the House of Commons: One who causes the House to be counted.
1861. Sat. Rev., 25 May, 527/2. A counter is looked upon in the House with the same sort of individual dread … that is accorded out of the House to an informer or a hangman.
† 2. A serjeant-at-law, etc.: see COUNTOUR. Obs.
3. An apparatus for keeping count of revolutions, strokes of a piston, etc. [Cf. F. compteur gas-meter.]
1803. Phil. Trans., XCIII. 145. A counter is placed so as to show the number of revolutions of the windlass.
1823. Mechanic’s Mag., No. 1. 4. By fixing a counter on the beam of one engine … the number of strokes made … was ascertained.
1829. ‘R. Stuart,’ Anecd. Steam-Engines, I. 275. This … counter, was formed of a series of small wheels, shut up in a box, having a dial and index-hand, to show how many revolutions had been made by the wheels.
