counterpart
Pronunciation
Etymology
It is formed from English counter- + part,[2][3][4][5][6][7] after Old French contrepartie, recorded in French from the 13th century.[2][3] Barnhart and Etymonline treat the English word as a borrowing of the French one,[8][9] which is formed from contre (“facing, opposite, corresponding”), from Latin contrā (“against”), and partie (“a part; a duplicate or exact copy”), originally the feminine past participle of partir (“to divide”).[8][9] Johnson (1755) explained it simply as counter and part.[10]
Earliest recorded meaning
A duplicate of a legal document: 1451, spelled countre part, in Barnhart,[8][11] and in the mid-15th century in Etymonline.[9] The OED's first record of the legal sense, the opposite part of an indenture, is from 1617.[2]
Semantic evolution
The word began in law, where each of the two indented copies of a deed or lease was the counterpart of the other.[2][3][12] From the 1630s it meant one of two parts that fit and complete each other (1635, in George Wither),[2][9] and for a time, from about 1676 to 1712, a duplicate or exact copy in general.[2] From about 1680 it was used figuratively of a person or thing so like another as to seem a copy of it.[2][9] Johnson (1755) defined it as the part that answers to another, like the two papers of a contract or the key of a cipher.[10] The now common sense of a person or thing that serves as the equivalent of another in a different setting, such as an official of the same rank in another country, is first recorded in 1903, in Shaw.[2][9] In music a counterpart is a part written to accompany another (1706).[2][3]
Timeline
- 1451 – countre part, a duplicate of a legal document.[8]
- 1617 – the opposite part of an indenture.[2]
- 1635 – one of two parts that complete each other.[2][9]
- c. 1676 – a duplicate or exact copy (obsolete by 1712).[2]
- c. 1680 – a person or thing that seems a copy of another.[2][9]
- 1706 – in music, a part written against another.[2]
- 1903 – an equivalent in a different context.[2][9]
Modern meaning
Noun
- A person or thing that has the same position or function as another in a different place or setting: The minister met her Italian counterpart in Rome.
- One of two parts that complement or fit each other.
- A person or thing closely resembling another.
- (law) One of two or more copies of a legal instrument, each counted as an original; a duplicate.
- An actor playing opposite another.
Adjective
- Of a fund in local currency set up by a country receiving aid, equal in value to the aid received: counterpart funds.
Related words
- counterbalance
- counterpoint
- countersign
- counterweight
- counter
- part
- party
References
- ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ 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
- ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
- ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
- ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
- ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
- ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
- ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
- ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
- ^ Garner, Bryan A., ed. (2004), Black's Law Dictionary, 8th ed., St. Paul, Minn.: Thomson West