control
pronunciation
How to pronounce control in British English:
UK 
How to pronounce control in American English:
US
Word Origin
- control
- control: [15] Implausible as it may seem, control’s closest relative in English is contrarotating. It has its origins in a medieval method of checking accounts which involved a duplicate register, or ‘counter-roll’, as it was known (contrārotulus in medieval Latin, contrā meaning ‘opposite’ and rotulus being the diminutive of rota ‘wheel’).From the medieval Latin noun a verb was formed, contrārotulāre, meaning ‘check accounts by such means’, and hence ‘exert authority’. This passed into English via Anglo-Norman contreroller. The spelling of the agent noun controller as comptroller, still encountered in certain official designations, arises from an erroneous 16th-century association of the first syllable with count, from late Latin computus.=> rota, rotate
- control (v.)
- early 14c., "to check, verify, regulate," from Anglo-French contreroller "exert authority," from Medieval Latin contrarotulus "a counter, register," from Latin contra- "against" (see contra) + rotulus, diminutive of rota "wheel" (see roll (n.)). From a medieval method of checking accounts by a duplicate register. Sense of "dominate, direct" is mid-15c. Related: Controlled; controlling. Control group in scientific experiments is attested from 1952 (from a sense of control attested since 1875).
- control (n.)
- 1580s, from control (v.). Control freak is late 1960s slang.
Example
- 1. Control over policies shifted to town councils .
- 2. Inflation seems to be under control .
- 3. Then there is the air-traffic control problem .
- 4. Officials insist everything is under control .
- 5. But these days the suits are firmly in control .