ˈcounting, vbl. n.
Also compting.
[f. count v. + -ing1.]
1. The action of the verb count, q.v.
| c 1380 Wyclif Wks. (1880) 65 Ȝif þei ȝeuen benefis to clerkis fore here wordly seruyces..as for kechene clerkis and countyngge or daunsynge. c 1400 Mandeville (1839) vii. 77 After cowntynge of x. monethes of the ȝeer. 1686 Lond. Gaz. 2132/4 The new Serjeants having..performed in the Inner Temple Hall..the Ceremony of Counting, and had their Quoifs put on by the Judges. 1833 Ann. Reg. 34 If no counting out of the House took place, the House might resume at 5. 1862 Sala Ship Chandler ii. 22 He's bullied me about my compting. 1888 Bryce Amer. Commw. II. iii. lxv. 488 The election frauds..ballot-stuffing, obstruction of the polls, and fraudulent countings in. |
† 2. A ‘company’ (of preachers).
Obs.| 1486 Bk. St. Albans F vi b, A countyng of prechouris. |
3. attrib. and
Comb.,
as counting-art,
† counting-board,
counting-machine,
counting-place;
† counting-book, an account-book;
† counting-cloth, a cloth for covering a counting-table;
counting-frame = abacus 2;
counting-rate = count-rate (
count n.1 9);
† counting-table, (
a) a table on which money is counted out, a counter; (
b) an abacus; an arithmetical table. Also
counting-house, -room.
| a 1637 B. Jonson Horace's Art Poetrie Wks. (Rtldg.) 735 They learne..How to diuide into a hundred parts, A pound..by their long *compting arts. |
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 98/2 *Cowntynge borde, or table, tapecea, tapecela. |
| 15.. in Pollard Miracle Plays 80 My *countynge boke I wolde make so clere That my rekenynge I sholde not nede to fere. 1642 Rogers Naaman 295 Some Prentices in the shoppe, have the trust of their Masters counting bookes. |
| 1480 Wardr. Acc. Edw. IV (1830) 170 A yerde and iij quarters grene clothe for half a *counting-clothe [for Exchequer Auditors]. |
| 1920 H. G. Wells Outl. Hist. I. xvi. 120/2 The Peruvians also got to making maps and the use of *counting-frames. 1937 Auden Spain 7 The diffusion Of the counting-frame and the cromlech. |
| 1889 Lisbon (Dakota) Star 11 Jan. 6/1, I have been in four or five of the largest banks in Russia..The Chinese *counting machine..is everywhere. |
| 1483 Cath. Angl. 79 A *Cowntynge place, libratorium. |
| 1956 Nature 3 Mar. 412/2 A sea-level meson recorder..showed a 100 per cent increase in *counting-rate. 1961 Lancet 12 Aug. 345/1 To get the highest counting-rate from the beta radiation. 1970 Nature 25 July 375/2 The net National Bureau of Standards oxalic acid and background counting rate at this pressure are respectively 3·8 and 0·6 c.p.m. |
| 1440 *Counting-table [see counting-board]. 1580 Hollyband Treas. Fr. Tong, La Table ou comptoir des changeurs, banquiers ou Argentiers, the marchauntes counting table. 1616–61 B. Holyday Persius 298 Nor love I him that counts the counting-table Of deep arithmeticians but a fable. |