I say that “Count” comes from medieval times and refers to the only local who was educated in cyphers (mathematics to you yokels). His principle duty was to oversee transactions of a monetary nature (i.e. money exchanges, cattle trades, county fair sweet potato judging, etc.). Because the individual’s integrity had to be uncontestible, the title of “count” was laden with the benefits of nobility. Evlkitty thinks I’m nuts. But she hasn’t come up with anything either. So what’s the dope?
A count is a nobleman in European countries; The word count comes from French comte, itself from Latin comes—in its accusative comitem—meaning “companion”, and later “companion of the emperor, delegate of the emperor”.
I’m with the cat. Perhaps it comes from the unit of territory known as the county? From the American Heritage Dictionary: ETYMOLOGY: Middle English *counte, *from Old French conte, from Late Latin comes, comit-, occupant of any state office, from Latin, companion.
I have a hunch that Inigo may be a fan of the Vorkosigan Saga, a series of SF novels by Lois McMaster Bujold, in which the protagonist’s father is a Count – but the term evolved convergently on the planet Barrayar (the stories’ setting, and a world that went feudal when it was cut off for a few centuries by destruction of the wormhole link that was the only feasible way to travel to/from it) as a clipping of the Emperor’s Tax Accountants.
you give me too much credit (heh). The mapcase’s assessment is the more accurate. I was just making that bit up. I’m terrible to live with because nobody ever knows if I’m joking.
or how about because there was a perfectly good English title, the eorl or earl, and William the Conquerer continued to use it for his nobles because he wanted to emphasise the continuity of his claim from Edward the Confessor, rather than introducing yet another Norman foreign innovation?
It’s because of the Scandinavian influence, the Anglo-Saxon nobles styled themselves earls after the title their leaders held in the old country. While the rank was somewhere in between a count and a duke, it originally had more of a warlike connotation and less of an administrative one, more like a general than a courtier.
Well I’ll be. It appears you’re right.
I was sure it was the other way 'round, since earl comes from “jarl” (pronounced “iarl”), which is a Danish/Norse word for chief, boss or honcho. And of course the Normans were descendants of Viking invaders (Norman itself being a derivation of Norseman/North Man).
However, apparently those Vikings adopted the local Gallo-Roman language during their time in France, rather than keeping their own. Learn something new every day.
It’s not necessarily the case that “earl” came from “jarl”. Anglo-Saxon had a cognate, “eorl” that was already in use at the time of the Norse invasions, as mentioned in this entry in the Online Etymology Dictionary:
See, for example, the Anglo-Saxon poem, the Battle of Maldon, which describes a battle between the Anglo-Saxons of eastern England, against an invading Norse force. The Anglo-Saxon text uses the word “eorl” to describe Byrhtnoth, the leader of the Anglo-Saxons:
Of course, with all the inter-mingling of Anglo-Saxons and Norse, such as the Danelaw and the reign of the Scandanavian kings such as Cnut, I would suppose that it’s not possible to say with complete certainty that modern “earl” is descended solely from “eorl.” It may also be a descendant of “jarl”, since both groups would use and recognize the word as used by the other group.
These seem to have a strange sort of enduring popularity. Is there some sort of thrill associated with getting people to buy a goofy story of how “cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey” originated?
And is there any example of this sort of “gee whiz” etymology that is valid? (All the many I have encountered are 100% bogus.)
So what were Anglo-Saxon/Norse “earlesses” originally called? And why did the wife of an earl come to be called a “countess” while the earl stayed an earl?
…Huh. Wiki sez, “The English never developed a feminine form of earl”. So what did they call the earl’s wife? “Mrs. Earl”? “The Earl’s Ladye”?
Apparently some variation on Lady – the one Earl’s Wife who remains famous to this day is Godgifu, the wife of Earl Leofric of Mercia, better known as Lady Godiva.
Thanks Poly. It appears that the Norse did call a jarl’s wife a jarless, or so says one GoogleBooks result I found. Didn’t catch on with the English, I guess.
Play it, Sam.