contrarotulus

Forms

contrārotulus m (genitive contrārotulī); second declension^[1] Köbler also lists a neuter contrārotulum.^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin contrā (“against, opposite”) + rotulus (“roll”), a roll kept against another.^[1][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in an English patent roll of 1220, which lets the king's clerks keep a contrarotulus of the revenues of Ireland: a counter-roll, a duplicate record kept by one official to check another.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word belongs to the royal administration of England, where officials of the wardrobe and the Exchequer of the Jews “had the counter-roll” of other clerks' accounts;^[2] Niermeyer defines it simply as a duplicate roll.^[3] It corresponds to the obsolete French contrerolle, the source of English counter-roll and, as contrôle, of English control.^[4]

Timeline

• 1220 – A patent roll gives the king's clerks a counter-roll of the Irish revenues.^[2]
• 1242 – A Pipe Roll mentions counter-rolls kept in the queen's wardrobe.^[2][1]
• 1243 – A copy of the rolls of the Exchequer of the Jews is kept as a counter-roll.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Medieval Latin) A counter-roll, a record kept by one official as a check on another; a duplicate roll.^[2][3][1]

Related words

• rotulus
• English control

References

1. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
2. ^ a b c d e f g Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
4. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press