Forms: 4– counter; also 4 counture, (5 cowntewery, countre, 6 cowntier), 5–6 countor, -our, 5–7 cownter, 6– compter. [a. AF. counteour, countour, in OF. conteoir, -eor, -oer, whence conteour, contouer, in 14–15th c. comptouer, comptouoir, mod.F. comptoir:—L. computātōrium (in med.L. 1364, Du Cange), f. computāre to compute, count + -ORIUM. As this became, like the prec., countour, -or in AF., they are both counter in mod.Eng. The form cowntewery points to an AF. counteori or countoueri.]
I. 1. Anything used in counting or keeping account: † a. A round piece of metal, ivory, or other material, formerly used in performing arithmetical operations. Obs.
α. c. 1310. Know Thyself, 38, in E. E. P. (1862), 131. Sitte doun and take countures rounde … And for vche a synne lay þou doun on Til þou þi synnes haue souȝt vp and founde.
1496. in Ld. Treas. Acc. Scot., I. 300. A nest of cowntouris to the King.
1515. Barclay, Egloges, iii. (1570), C ij/1. The kitchin clarke … Jengling his counters, chatting himselfe alone.
1539. Palsgr., 684/1. I shall reken it syxe tymes by aulgorisme or you can caste it ones by counters [par jectons].
1542. Recorde, Gr. Artes, 86 b. Nowe that you have learned … Arithmetike with the penne, you shall see the same Arte in Counters.
1579. G. Harvey, Letter-bk. (Camden), 66. Marchantes counters, which nowe and then stande for hundreds and thousands, by and bye for odd halfpens or farthinges and otherwhiles for very nihils?
1609. Holland, Amm. Marcell., XXXI. iv. 405. They assayed many times to cast with counters, and comprise the full number of them.
1712. Arbuthnot, John Bull (1755), 2. [They] never used to dirty their fingers with pen, ink, and counters.
1801. Strutt, Sports & Past., IV. ii. 277. The stones and shells were laid aside, and counters made with ivory became their substitutes.
β. 1540. Act 32 Hen. VIII., c. 14. Item for euery nest of compters .xviii.s.
1599. Sandys, Europæ Spec. (1632), 235. Praying by tale with Sainct Dominicks round compters.
1611. Shaks., Wint. T., IV. iii. 38. Euery tod yeeldes pound and odde shilling: fifteene hundred shorne, what comes the wooll too?… I cannot do’t without Compters.
1698. J. Crull, Muscovy, 173. Arithmetick … which they perform by the help of Plumb-Stones instead of Compters.
b. In later times used chiefly in keeping an account or reckoning in games of chance, esp. cards. (These counters are of various shapes, according to convenience.)
1579. Tomson, Calvin’s Serm. Tim., 105/2. They cast it into the winde, they played with it as with a counter.
a. 1600[?]. Tom Thumbe, 61, in Hazl., E. P. P., II. 179. Where he for counters, pinns and points, and cherry stones did play.
1674. Cotton, Compl. Gamester, in Singer, Hist. Cards, 345. He that hath first played away his cards demands as many counters as there are cards in the hands of the rest.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 15, ¶ 4. They were marking their game with Counters.
1732. Berkeley, Alciphr., VII. § 8. Counters … at a card-table are used … as signs substituted for money.
1874. Burnand, My Time, vii. 61. Card-playing … for counters at two-pence a dozen.
1878. H. H. Gibbs, Ombre, 8. The COUNTERS should be of various shapes—round, oblong, and long (or fish-shaped).
c. Also, applied to the ‘pieces’ or ‘men’ used in playing shovelboard, chess, draughts and other games; also fig.
1605. Armin, Foole upon F. (1880), 21. All alone he playd at slide groate, as his manner was: peeces or counters he had none.
1855. Merivale, Rom. Emp., VIII. lxvii. 299. The mass of the emperor’s subjects … were moved as counters by the hands of a central government.
1874. Green, Short Hist., vii. 368. The noblest aims and lives were only counters on her board.
2. An imitation coin of brass or inferior metal; a token used to represent real coin; hence often rhetorically contrasted with real coins, as being only their temporary representatives or counterfeits.
1526. Skelton, Magnyf., 1186. Nay, offer hym a counter in stede of a peny.
1601. Dent, Pathw. Heaven (1831), 24. A fool believeth every thing: that copper is gold, and a counter an angel.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., I. iv. 15. Words are wise mens counters, they do but reckon by them: but they are the mony of fooles.
1689. Lond. Gaz., No. 2498/4. A silver box of Counters stampt with Kings and Queens heads, [etc.].
1702. C. Mather, Magn. Chr., III. I. iii. (1852), 309. He sent her a brass counter, a silver crown, and a gold jacobus.
1796. T. Jefferson, Writ. (1859), IV. 152. Counters will pay this from the poor of spirit; but from you, my friend, coin was due.
1796. Burke, Regic. Peace, i. Wks. VIII. 152. Silver, not as now a sort of counter, but the body of the current coin.
1855. Browning, Statue & Bust. The true has no value beyond the sham. As well the counter as coin, I submit.
1868. Daily News, 23 Oct., 4/3. How easy it is to pay fools with the counters of words instead of with the money of thought.
b. Also applied to debased coin, and contemptuously to money generally.
1601. Shaks., Jul. C., IV. iii. 80. When Marcus Brutus growes so Couetous To locke such Rascall Counters from his Friends.
1734. Swift, Drapier’s Lett., ii. Does Mr. Wood think, we will sell him a stone of wool for a parcel of his counters not worth sixpence.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., III. 582. He was robbed indirectly by a new issue of counters, smaller in size and baser in material than any which had yet borne the image and superscription of James.
c. As the type of a thing of no intrinsic value.
1600. Shaks., A. Y. L., II. vii. 63. What, for a Counter, would I do, but good?
1664. H. More, Myst. Iniq., 554. Childish squabling about Nut-shells, Counters and Cherry stones. Ibid. (1682), Lett. Sev. Subjects (1694), 32. Stickling to get the most Counters and Cherry-cobs.
II. † 3. A table or desk for counting money, keeping accounts, etc.; a bureau. Obs.
In quot. 1369 perh. an abacus or counting-board.
c. 1369. Chaucer, Dethe Blaunche, 436. Thogh Argus the noble covnter [v.r. countour] Sete to rekene in hys counter [v.r. countour].
1453. Marg. Paston, in P. Lett., No. 185, I. 250. The draute chamer, ther as ye wold your cofors and cowntewery shuld be sette for the whyle; and ther is no space besyde the bedd … for to sette both your bord and your kofors ther.
1493. Bury Wills (1850), 81. I bequethe to Kateryn my wyff my countour stondyng in my parlour. Ibid. (1504), 98. A fetherbed and a tabyll callyd a countour.
1521. Test. Ebor. (Surtees), V. 203. Unum magnum cowntier stans in aula.
1587. Wills & Inv. N. C. (Surtees), II. 306. One fetherbed … standing in the westmost chamber, and the best counter, that is in the same chamber.
4. A banker’s or money-changer’s table; also, the table in a shop on which the money paid by purchasers is counted out, and across which goods are delivered. The tradesman stands behind the counter; goods are sold and money paid over the counter.
(In modern times the shop-counter is also used for the display of goods, but this is not implied in the name.)
α. 1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 259/1. He [is] … behind a Counter or Counting Table.
1701. De Foe, True-born Eng., 25. Fate has but very small Distinction set Betwixt the Counter and the Coronet.
1712. Arbuthnot, John Bull (1755), 2. Sometimes you would see him behind his counter selling broad-cloth, sometimes measuring linen.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., III. 215. [He] might walk into a shop, lay on the counter a bit of brass worth threepence, and carry off goods to the value of half a guinea.
1875. Jevons, Money (1878), 252. Pay it back over the counter to the credit of his account with the same banker.
1889. J. M. M’Calmont, in Times, 25 May, 9/4. On the weekly market and fair days he would take some £40 over the counter.
β. 1699. Garth, Dispens., III. 30. Then from the Compter he takes down the File.
1731. Fielding, New Way, II. ii. Do you sit behind a desk, or stand behind a compter?
1798. Anti-Jacobin, xxvi. 136. Each spruce nymph from city compters free.
1826. Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. II. (1863), 324. Mrs. Bennet, milliner … who … marshalled a compter full of caps and bonnets at one side of the shop.
† 5. A counting-house: a. In early use. Obs.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Shipm. T., 213. Vp to hir housbande is this wyf ygon And knokketh at his Countour [v.r. counter] boldely.
1431. Test. Ebor., I. (Surtees), 16. Omnia instrumenta et necessaria shopæ meæ ad le meltynghouse et ad countor meum spectantia.
1530. Palsgr., 209/2. Counter, a countyng house, comptoyr.
b. In 18–19th c. after F. comptoir.
1736. Berkeley, App. to Querist, II. § 136, Wks. (1871), III. 526. Whether it would not be right to build the compters and public treasuries … without wood…?
1809. Ann. Reg., 861/1. England is only sensible in her compters.
III. † 6. The office, court, or hall of justice of a mayor. Obs.
1479. Mayor of Bristol, in Eng. Gilds (1870), 426. The Maire and Shiref … to kepe theire due residence at the Counter euery Feryall day.
a. 1734. North, Exam., III. viii. § 44 (1740), 616. The law Province was restored to its Seat in the several Counters, and the Sherriffs opened their Halls.
7. The prison attached to such a city court; the name of certain prisons for debtors, etc., in London, Southwark, and some other cities and boroughs. In this sense the official spelling from the 17th c. was COMPTER, q.v. Obs. exc. Hist.
1388. [see COUNTER-TENOR 1 b for play upon this word].
1428. E. E. Wills (1882), 78. The prisons of Ludgate … And the Countours.
1476. Plumpton Corr., 36. He … gart him be sett in the Countre, till he founde sewerte to answer at the Gildehall for the cloth.
1480. Caxton, Chron. Eng., ccxxxix. 265. They … brake vp the prison of newgate and drafe oute al the prisoners and of both countours … and destroyed alle the bookes of bothe counters.
1556. Chron. Gr. Friars (Camden), 96. Item the xxvij. day of September after was the counter in Bredstret removyd in-to Wood-strete.
1598. B. Jonson, Ev. Man in Hum., II. i. He is got into one o’ your citie pounds, the Counters.
1645. Pagitt, Heresiogr. (1662), 215. He was committed by the Lord Mayor to the Counter, and from thence removed to the new prison in Maiden Lane.
1681. W. Robertson, Phraseol. Gen. (1693), 398. A counter or prison, carcer. [See COMPTER.]
IV. 8. attrib. and Comb., as (sense 3) counter-cloth; (sense 4) counter-dandy, -keeper; (sense 5) counter-door, -house; (sense 7) counter-book, -gate, -scuffle, -wall; counter-case, a flat case to lie on a shop-counter; † counter-caterpillar, ? slang name for a constable; † counter-rat, (a) slang name for an inferior officer of a Counter; (b) a criminal inmate of a Counter; counter-skipper = COUNTER-JUMPER. Also COUNTER-JUMPER, -MAN.
1630. J. Taylor (Water P.), Wks. (N.). Though base and trebles, fortune did me grant, Yet to make up the musicke, I must looke The tenor in the cursed *counter-booke.
1631[?]. Wat Tyler, in Evans, O. B. (1784), I. li. 282. Into the counters then they get, Where men in prison lay for debt; They broke the doors and let them out, And threw the counter-books about.
1707. E. Ward, Hud. Rediv., II. 6. These *Compter-Caterpillars, These Hawk-ey’d Shoulder-dabbling Dealers.
1541. Lanc. Wills, I. 129. A *cownter clothe xvjd.
1848. Thackeray, Bk. Snobs, xxvii. Young *counter-dandies are displaying their wares.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Shipman’s T., 85. Ffor which ful faste his *Countour dore he shette.
1598. Shaks., Merry W., III. iii. 85. Thou mightst as well say, I loue to walke by the *Counter-gate.
1710. E. Ward, Brit. Hud. Go see ’em strait, I charge you, in at Counter-Gate.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Shipman’s T., 77. And vp in to his *Countour hous gooth he.
1804. Edin. Rev., V. 6. The wretched perversion of judgement which uniformly ranks … *counter keepers … before the honest ploughman.
a. 1613. Overbury, Char., Sargeant’s Yeoman. This *counter-rat … hath not his full halfe-share of the booty.
1707. E. Ward, Hud. Rediv., II. 6. Looking as rough as Counter Rats.
1858. R. S. Surtees, Ask Mamma, xxv. 97. She … taught them … how to speak to a doctor, how to a *counter-skipper.
1859. Sat. Rev., VII. 191/2. A counter-skipper in a small linen-draper’s shop.
1607. Heywood, Fair Maid Exch., Wks. 1874, II. 31. Sentences … for posteritie to carve Vpon the inside of the *Counter wall.
