[COUNTER- 8: cf. F. contre-partie (13th c. in Godef., Suppl.)]
1. Law. The opposite part of an INDENTURE, q.v.; each of the indented parts of a deed of contract, etc., in its relation to the other part; esp. that which is not considered the principal part or original, e.g., the executed copy of a lease or receipt retained by the grantor as a counter-security.
1617. Sir R. Boyle, Diary (1886), I. 160. Sir Walter Raleigh … endorsed with his own hand on the counterpart of the lease.
1767. Blackstone, Comm., II. 296. When the several parts of an indenture are interchangeably executed by the several parties, that part or copy which is executed by the grantor is usually called the original, and the rest are counterparts.
1808. Regul. Service at Sea, V. ii. § 16. The Captain is to keep Counterparts of all the Accounts of the Receipt and Expenditure of Stores and Provisions with which the Ship shall be supplied.
1858. Ld. St. Leonards, Handy Bk. Prop. Law, xvi. 107. A counterpart of the lease is to be executed by the lessee.
1866. Rogers, Agric. & Prices, I. xxvi. 644. It does not seem that any counterpart was delivered to the borrower.
fig. a. 1720. Sheffield (Dk. Buckhm.), Wks. (1753), I. 120. And this contract [friendship] will never hold, without an exact counterpart.
† 2. gen. A duplicate, or exact copy. Obs.
a. 1676. Hale, Law Eng. (J.). In some things the laws of Normandy agreed with the laws of England; so that they seem to be, as it were, copies or counterparts one of another.
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 267, ¶ 4. In The Spanish Friar … the two different Plots look like Counterparts and Copies of one another.
3. fig. A person or thing so answering to another as to appear a duplicate or exact copy of it.
a. 1680. Butler, Rem. (1759), I. 136.
| So like in all Things, that one Brother | |
| Is but a Counterpart of th’ other. |
1785. Cowper, Tiroc., 442. He, that seemed our counterpart at first, Soon shows the strong similitude revers’d.
1824. W. Irving, T. Trav., I. 31. A full-length portrait … the very counterpart of his visitor of the preceding night.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. App. 429. You can actually build up a sandstone mass which shall be the exact counterpart of that presented by nature.
4. One of two parts that fit and complete each other; a person or thing forming a natural complement to another.
1634. Wither, Emblems, 99. To meet each other’s nat’rall Counterpart.
1691. Dryden, K. Arthur, IV. Wks. 1808, VIII. 153 (J.).
| Oh counterpart | |
| Of our soft sex! Well are you made our lords. |
1822. Hazlitt, Table-t., I. xvi. 392. Popular fury finds its counterpart in courtly servility.
1833. Chalmers, Const. Man (1835), I. ii. 112. In counterpart to this complacency … there is a felt discomfort.
1880. Haughton, Phys. Geog., ii. 19. Deep-sea valleys … are the counterparts of the mountain chains.
5. Music. A part written ‘against’ or to accompany another. [COUNTER- 12.]
[1597. Morley, Introd. Mus., 154. Likewise betwixt the treble and counter part another might easilie be placed.]
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Counter-part … a Term in Musick, only importing one Part to be opposite to another; as the Bass is said To be the Counter-part of the Treble.
1806. Gregory, Dict. Arts & Sc., I. 446.
6. attrib.
1833. Chalmers, Const. Man (1835), I. iii. 155. Urging onward their counterpart desires.
1885. Law Times Rep., LI. 662/1. The parties having come to an agreement … the terms thereof were embodied in two counterpart documents.
