counterbalance

Etymology

It is formed from English counter- + balance,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} the noun from the noun balance and the verb from the verb.^[2][5] Etymonline refers it to weighing in scales.^[3] Barnhart instead takes the verb as borrowed from Middle French contre-balancer, formed from contre- (“against”) and balancer (“to balance”), and the noun either as the English verb used as a noun or as French contre-balance.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The opposite scale of a balance: in Sir Philip Sidney's Apologie for Poetrie (written before 1586), a sense that soon died out.^[2][5] The 1989 edition of the OED dated it to 1580,^[8] and Barnhart dates the verb to 1580 and the noun to 1603.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The concrete senses came first: by 1611, in Cotgrave's dictionary, the noun meant a weight that balances another and the verb to act as such a weight.^[2] The OED's first record of the verb is in Florio's Montaigne (1603), of a person weighing one thing against another, a use that did not last.^[2][5] Figurative uses followed within a generation: the noun for a power or influence that offsets an opposite one (1640) and the verb for cancelling out the effect of something (1636).^[2][3] In engineering the noun is used especially of the weight that balances a rotating or rising and falling part so that it moves easily.^[2][5] Johnson (1755) defined the noun as "opposite weight; equivalent power", quoting Dryden and Locke.^[9]

Timeline

• before 1586 – the opposite scale of a balance (obsolete).^[2][5]
• 1603 – verb, of a person, to weigh one thing against another (obsolete).^[2][7]
• 1611 – a weight that balances another; verb, to act as such a weight.^[2][4]
• 1636 – verb, figurative, to offset the effect of something.^[2][3]
• 1640 – noun, figurative, an influence that offsets a contrary one.^[2][3]
• 1647 – a weighing of one thing against another, a comparison (obsolete).^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A weight that balances another; a counterpoise or counterweight.^[4][10][11]
2. A force or influence that offsets or checks an opposing one: Her calm was a useful counterbalance to his temper.^[4][10][2]

Verb

1. To balance with an equal weight; to act as a counterbalance to.^[4][10][2]
2. To oppose with an equal force; to offset or neutralize: Higher fees were counterbalanced by better service.^[4][10][11]
3. To fit with counterbalances.^[12]

Related words

• balance
• counter-

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
11. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster