Counts

Part of speech: verb, noun

Pronunciation: /kaʊnts/

Definitions

1. The total number of items or instances when counting multiple units
2. A quantity obtained by tallying individual elements or events
3. The aggregate tally or sum derived from enumerating separate parts

Etymology: The plural "counts" is simply the form of the verb and noun "count" used for more than one instance, so its history is that of "count" itself. The surprise lies in how that word splits into two unrelated lineages. The verb descends from Latin "computare", "to compute", which reached English through Old French "conter", meaning both "add up" and "tell a story". That sense of telling survives in the story-teller's shared root, and it displaced the native Old English "tellan", the ancestor of modern "tell". So "count" and "tell" were once rivals for the same job of relating events in order. The noun is a separate word. It comes from Latin "comes", "companion", and specifically from its accusative form "comitem", used of a noble who fought alongside the king. That Latin sense passed through Anglo-Norman and Old French "comte" into Middle English as "counte", meaning a nobleman. The two words are doublets only in the sense that both trace to Latin, but they reached English by different routes and with different meanings.

Synonyms: tallies, calculates, enumerates

Antonyms: ignores, disregards