Counterweights

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A weight used to balance or counteract another weight in a mechanical system
2. devices that stabilize or equalize forces in machinery or structures
3. elements applied to maintain equilibrium by offsetting an opposing force or load

Etymology: "Counterweights" is the plural of "counterweight," a compound formed from "counter-" and "weight." The second half is the familiar one: "weight" descends from Old English "gewiht," and it has meant a heavy thing used to balance another since the word's earliest days. The first half is the more tangled part. "Counter-" arrived in English through Old French "contre-," which goes back to Latin "contrā," meaning "against" or "opposite," and that Latin word itself was built from "com-" and "-terus" in Proto-Italic times. An Anglo-Norman form passed the element into Middle English, where it appeared as "counter-," and it was later combined freely with English nouns. Put together, the compound means a weight placed against another weight to balance it. The sense is literal and mechanical: a counterweight sits on the far side of a lever, pulley, or scale so that the two loads hang in equilibrium. The word therefore describes a pair of forces pushing in opposite directions, which is exactly what "against" in the Latin root suggests.

Synonyms: balances, equilibrators, opposites, compensators, weights