Countrefait

Part of speech: adjective, noun, verb

Definitions

1. Made as a fraudulent copy of something genuine, such as a forged coin or document ; to produce such a fake imitation in order to deceive people
2. Describing an imitation made to pass for the real thing by fraud ; to copy something fraudulently so that it can be mistaken for the original
3. Fraudulently copied so as to pass for genuine ; to make a false imitation of something with the intent of deceiving others

Etymology: Old French "contrefaire" meant simply to imitate or copy something, with no hint of fraud. Its past participle, "contrefait," carried that neutral sense into Middle English, where "countrefait" was used of anything made in imitation of an original. Behind it stands the Latin "contrafacere," from "contra" (against, in opposition) and "facere" (to make), so the word literally meant something made to stand against or alongside a model. The sense of deception came later, as imitations were increasingly made to pass for the real thing. The modern spelling "counterfeit" is a later respelling that made the word look like it contains the prefix "counter-." That resemblance is misleading, since the word is unrelated to the "counter" of a shop counter, which comes from a different French source.