" counters "

[Noun]  | "count*er" | \ ˈkau̇n-tər \

1: a person or thing that counts something; especially : a device or process for indicating a number or amount

Origin: 14th century ;

 Middle English countour, cowntere "person who counts or calculates, official who oversee:s the collection of taxes, pleader in court (who makes the conte, a formal statement of the basis of the case)," borrowed from Anglo-French cunteor, cuntur, countur "narrator, informant, pleader in court," from conter, compter, cunter "to count, calculate, count as valid, relate, narrate" + -eur, -ur, going back to Latin -ātōr-, -ātor, from -ā-, stem formative of verbs + -tōr-, -tor, agent suffix {mat|count:1|};

  * Note : {counter:1|counter:1} and {counter:2|counter:2} have been homonyms since Middle English and were likely already homonyms in Anglo-French. They are separated here and in the Oxford English Dictionary, though the Middle English Dictionary treats them under a single lemma. In modern French they are distinct, with {counter:1|counter:1} corresponding to comptoir and {counter:2|counter:2} corresponding to conteur, though conteur is now used to mean "storyteller," as the base verb conter usually means "recount, relate.";

[Noun]  | "count*er" | \ ˈkau̇n-tər \

1: a piece (as of metal or plastic) used in reckoning or in games

2: something of value in bargaining : asset

3: a level surface (such as a table, shelf or display case) over which transactions are conducted or food is served or on which goods are displayed or work is conducted

Origin: 14th century ;

 Middle English countour, countere "table used for counting money or auditing accounts, metal disk used for arithmetic calculations," borrowed from Anglo-French countour, comptor (Middle French compteor "table used by a merchant to display wares and count money"), from conter, compter, cunter "to count, calculate, count as valid, relate, narrate" + -our, -or (Middle French -eoir), going back to Latin -ātōrium, from -ā-, stem formative of verbs + -tōrium, suffix denoting a place or object used for the activity of the verb (from neuter of -tōrius, adjective derivative of the agent noun -tōr-, -tor) {mat|count:1|};

  * Note : See note at {counter:2|counter:2}.;

[Noun]  | "coun*ter" | \ ˈkau̇n-tər \

1: contrary, opposite

2: the after portion of a boat from the waterline to the extreme outward swell or stern overhang

3: the act of making an attack while parrying one (as in boxing); also : a blow thus given in boxing

Origin: 15th century ;

 Derivative of {see: |counter:4|counter:4} and {see: |counter:6|counter:6}; (sense 2) perhaps of distinct origin;

[Noun]  | "bean counter" 

1: a person involved in corporate or government financial decisions and especially one reluctant to spend money

Origin: 1971 ;

[Noun]  | "Gei*ger counter" | \ ˈgī-gər- \

1: an instrument for detecting the presence and intensity of radiations (such as cosmic rays or particles from a radioactive substance) by means of their ionizing effect on an enclosed gas which results in a pulse that is amplified and fed to a device giving a visible or audible indication

Origin: 1924 ;

 Hans Geiger †1945 German physicist;

[Noun]  | "Gei*ger-Mül*ler counter" | \ ˈgī-gər-ˈmyü-lər \

1: geiger counter

Origin: 1932 ;

 W. Müller, 20th century German physicist;

[Noun]  | "lunch counter" 

1: a long counter at which lunches are sold

2: luncheonette

Origin: 1869 ;

[Noun]  | "scintillation counter" 

1: a device for detecting and registering individual scintillations (as in radioactive emission)

Origin: 1947 ;

[Verb]  | "coun*ter" | \ ˈkau̇n-tər \

1: to act in opposition to : oppose

2: offset, nullify

3: to assert in answer

Origin: 14th century ;

 Middle English countren, contren "to act against, oppose, contradict," derivative of contre {see: |counter:4|counter:4} or its source, Anglo-French contre;

[Verb]  | "counters" 

[Verb]  | "counter" 

[Noun]  | "counters" 

[Noun]  | "counter" 

[Noun]  | "lunch counters"