Kontor

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈkɒntɔː/

Definitions

1. A trading post or commercial establishment, particularly one associated with merchants
2. An office or place where specific trade activities are conducted, especially in historical contexts
3. A term historically used to refer to a place of business for merchants operating within certain regions

Etymology: The Hanseatic merchants of medieval northern Europe ran trading posts abroad, and the word for those offices, "kontor", still carries that commercial flavour in English. It arrived from German, where it was borrowed from Middle Low German "kontôr", meaning a commercial branch or a writing room with a counting desk. Behind that lies Middle Dutch "contoor", and before that Middle French "contoir" or "comptoir", all built on the verb "conter" or "compter", meaning "to count". The French suffix "-oir" marks a tool or place for doing something, so the original sense was simply a place for counting. That same idea of a counting table is shared by "counter", the shop surface you lean on, and by "computer", both of which come from the same French root, making "kontor" a close relative of everyday English words rather than an exotic import. English took the word only in the late nineteenth century, so it stayed a specialist term for trading houses and their accounts rather than entering common speech.

Synonyms: office, bureau