count

count¹

/kownt/, v.t.

1. to check over (the separate units or groups of a collection) one by one to determine the total number; add up; enumerate: He counted his tickets and found he had ten.

2. to reckon up; calculate; compute.

3. to list or name the numerals up to: Close your eyes and count ten.

4. to include in a reckoning; take into account: There are five of us here, counting me.

5. to reckon to the credit of another; ascribe; impute.

6. to consider or regard: He counted himself lucky to have survived the crash.

v.i.

7. to count the items of a collection one by one in order to determine the total: She counted three times before she was satisfied that none was missing.

8. to list or name numerals in order: to count to 100 by fives.

9. to reckon numerically.

10. to have a specified numerical value.

11. to be accounted or worth something: That first try didn't count - I was just practicing.

12. to have merit, importance, value, etc.; deserve consideration: Every bit of help counts.

13. to have worth; amount (usually fol. by for): Intelligence counts for something.

14. count coup. See coup¹ (def. 4).

15. count down, to count backward, usually by ones, from a given integer to zero.

16. count in, to include: If you're going to the beach, count me in.

17. count off, (often used imperatively, as in the army) to count aloud by turns, as to arrange positions within a group of persons; divide or become divided into groups: Close up ranks and count off from the left by threes.

18. count on or upon, to depend or rely on: You can always count on him to lend you money.

19. count out,

a. Boxing. to declare (a boxer) a loser because of inability to stand up before the referee has counted 10 seconds.

b. to exclude: When it comes to mountain climbing, count me out.

c. to count and apportion or give out: She counted out four cookies to each child.

d. to disqualify (ballots) illegally in counting, in order to control the election.

n.

20. the act of counting; enumeration; reckoning; calculation: A count of hands showed 23 in favor and 16 opposed.

21. the number representing the result of a process of counting; the total number.

22. an accounting.

23. Baseball. the number of balls and strikes, usually designated in that order, that have been called on a batter during a turn at bat: a count of two balls and one strike.

24. Law. a distinct charge or theory of action in a declaration or indictment: He was found guilty on two counts of theft.

25. Textiles.

a. a number representing the size or quality of yarn, esp. the number based on the relation of weight to length of the yarn and indicating its degree of coarseness.

b. the number of warp and filling threads per square inch in woven material, representing the texture of the fabric.

26. Bowling. the number of pins struck down by the first ball rolled by a bowler in the frame following a spare and included in the score for the frame in which the spare was made.

27. Physics.

a. a single ionizing reaction registered by an ionization chamber, as in a Geiger counter.

b. the indication of the total number of ionizing reactions registered by an ionization chamber in a given period of time.

28. Archaic. regard; notice.

29. the count, Boxing. the calling aloud by the referee of the seconds from 1 to 10 while a downed boxer remains off his feet. Completion of the count signifies a knockout, which the referee then declares: A hard right sent the challenger down for the count. Also called the full count.

adj.

30. noting a number of items determined by an actual count: The box is labeled 50 count.

[1275-1325; (v.) ME counten < AF c(o)unter, OF conter < L computare to COMPUTE; (n.) ME counte < AF c(o)unte, OF conte < LL computus calculation, reckoning, n. deriv. of computare]

count²

/kownt/, n.

(in some European countries) a nobleman equivalent in rank to an English earl.

[1375-1425; late ME counte < AF c(o)unte, OF conte, comte < LL comitem, acc. of comes honorary title of various imperial functionaries, L: retainer, staff member, lit., companion; see COMES]

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I

or earl

European title of nobility, ranking in modern times directly below a marquess or (in countries without marquesses) a duke.

In England the title of earl is the equivalent of count and ranks above a viscount. The wife of a count or earl is a countess. The Roman comes ("count") was originally a household companion of the emperor; under the Franks he was a local commander and judge. The counts were later incorporated into the feudal structure, some becoming subordinate to dukes, though a few countships were as great as duchies. As royal authority was reasserted over the feudatories, which took place at different times in the different kingdoms, the counts lost their political authority, though they retained their privileges as members of the nobility.

II

(as used in expressions)

Aehrenthal Aloys Count Lexa von

Alfieri Vittorio Count

Amadeus the Green Count

Andrássy Gyula Count

Arakcheyev Aleksey Andreyevich Count

Basie Count

Berchtold Leopold count von

Bernadotte af Wisborg Folke Count

Bernstorff Johann Heinrich count von

Beust Friedrich Ferdinand count von

Caprivi Georg Leo count von

Cavour Camillo Benso count di

Chambord Henri Dieudonné d'Artois count de

Ciano Galeazzo count di Cortellazzo

Conrad von Hötzendorf Franz Xaver Josef Count

Frontenac Louis de Buade count de Palluau and de

Gama Vasco da 1st count da Vidigueira

Gneisenau August Wilhelm Anton Count Neidhardt von

Gobineau Joseph Arthur count de

Grandi Dino count di Mordano

Ignatyev Nikolay Pavlovich Count

Izvolsky Aleksandr Petrovich Count

Károlyi Mihály Count

count de L'Empire

Bruno count von Egisheim und Dagsburg

Loris Melikov Mikhail Tariyelovich Count

Louis Stanislas Xavier count de Provence

Moltke Helmuth Karl Bernhard count von

Montalembert Charles Forbes René count de

Nesselrode Karl Robert Vasilyevich Count

Orlov Aleksey Grigoryevich Count

Orlov Grigory Grigoryevich Count

Oxenstierna af Södermöre Axel Gustafsson Count

Pico della Mirandola Giovanni conte count di Concordia

Radetzky Joseph Count

Rochambeau Jean Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur count de

Roon Albrecht Theodor Emil count von

Donatien Alphonse François count de Sade

Saxe Hermann Maurice count de

Sforza Carlo Count

Speransky Mikhail Mikhaylovich Count

Suvorov Aleksandr Vasilyevich Count

Széchenyi István Count

Taaffe Eduard count von

Teleki Pál Count

Tilly Johann Tserclaes count von

Tisza István Count

Tolstoy Aleksey Konstantinovich Count

Tolstoy Aleksey Nikolayevich Count

Lev Nikolayevich Count Tolstoy

Uvarov Sergey Semyonovich Count

Vergennes Charles Gravier count de

Vigny Alfred Victor count de

Count of Valor

Don Luchino Visconti count di Modrone

Witte Sergey Yulyevich Count

Yorck von Wartenburg Johann David Ludwig Count

Mac Mahon Marie Edme Patrice Maurice count de

Maurits prince van Oranje count van Nassau

Mirabeau Honoré Gabriel Riqueti count de

Aberdeen George Hamilton Gordon 4th earl of

Alexander Harold Rupert Leofric George Alexander 1st Earl

Asquith Herbert Henry 1st earl of Oxford and Asquith

Attlee Clement Richard 1st Earl Attlee of Walthamstow

Baldwin of Bewdley Stanley Baldwin 1st Earl

Balfour of Whittingehame Arthur James 1st Earl

Birkenhead Frederick Edwin Smith 1st earl of

James Earl Breslin

Browder Earl Russell

Burger Warren Earl

Bute John Stuart 3rd earl of

Cadogan William 1st Earl

Cardigan James Thomas Brudenell 7th earl of

James Earl Carter

Cecil Robert 1st earl of Salisbury

Clarendon Edward Hyde 1st earl of

Clarendon George William Frederick Villiers 4th earl of

Cornwallis Charles Cornwallis 1st Marquess and 2nd Earl

Cromer Evelyn Baring 1st earl of

Cromwell Thomas earl of Essex

Derby Edward George Geoffrey Smith Stanley 14th earl of

Disraeli Benjamin earl of Beaconsfield

Dodge William Earl

Dongan Thomas 2nd earl of Limerick

Durham John George Lambton 1st earl of

Eden Robert Anthony 1st earl of Avon

Elgin James Bruce 8th earl of

Essex Robert Devereux 2nd earl of

Essex Robert Devereux 3rd earl of

Essex Walter Devereux 1st earl of

French John Denton Pinkstone 1st earl of Ypres

Grey Charles Grey 2nd Earl

Haig Douglas 1st Earl

Halifax Edward Frederick Lindley Wood 1st earl of

Harley Robert 1st earl of Oxford

Henry Tudor earl of Richmond

Hines Earl Kenneth

Howe Richard Howe Earl

Jellicoe John Rushworth Jellicoe 1st Earl

Jones James Earl

Leicester Robert Dudley earl of

Liverpool Robert Banks Jenkinson 2nd earl of

Lloyd George of Dwyfor David Lloyd George Earl

Mansfield William Murray 1st earl of

Earl of Leicester

Montrose James Graham 5th earl and 1st marquess of

Morton James Douglas 4th earl of

earl of Guilford

Northampton Henry Howard earl of

Earl of Kent

Ormonde James Butler 12th earl and 1st duke of

Oxford Edward de Vere 17th earl of

1st earl of Chatham

Earl Powell

Ray James Earl

John Stewart earl of Carrick

Rochester John Wilmot 2nd earl of

Rosse William Parsons 3rd earl of

Russell Bertrand Arthur William 3rd Earl Russell

Russell of Kingston Russell John Russell 1st Earl

Sackville Thomas 1st earl of Dorset

Sandwich John Montagu 4th earl of

Shaftesbury Anthony Ashley Cooper 1st earl of

Shaftesbury Anthony Ashley Cooper 3rd earl of

Shaftesbury Anthony Ashley Cooper 7th earl of

Shrewsbury Charles Talbot duke and 12th earl of

Southampton Thomas Wriothesley 1st earl of

Southampton Henry Wriothesley 3rd earl of

Stanhope James Stanhope 1st Earl

Stanhope Charles Stanhope 3rd Earl

Stirling William Alexander 1st earl of

Strafford Thomas Wentworth 1st earl of

Suffolk Thomas Howard 1st earl of

Sunderland Robert Spencer 2nd earl of

Surrey Henry Howard earl of

Tyrone Hugh O'Neill 2nd earl of

Walpole Horace 4th earl of Orford

Walpole Robert 1st earl of Orford

Warren Earl

Warwick Earl of

Bulwer Lytton Edward George Earl

Earl Kitchener of Khartoum and of Broome

Maurice Harold Macmillan 1st earl of Stockton Viscount Macmillan of Ovenden

Mountbatten of Burma Louis Mountbatten 1st Earl

Rosebery Archibald Philip Primrose 5th earl of

Wavell of Eritrea and of Winchester Archibald Percival Wavell 1st Earl

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▪ title of nobility

Introduction

feminine  countess 

 European title of nobility, equivalent to a British earl, ranking in modern times after a marquess or, in countries without marquesses, a duke. The Roman comes was originally a household companion of the emperor, while under the Franks he was a local commander and judge. The counts were later slowly incorporated into the feudal structure, some becoming subordinate to dukes, although a few counties (or countships), such as those of Flanders, Toulouse, and Barcelona, were as great as duchies. The reassertion of royal authority over the feudatories, which took place at different times in the different kingdoms and led to the formation of centralized states of the modern type, meant that most counts lost their political authority, though they retained their privileges as members of the nobility.

France

      French counts became vassals of dukes by 900 at the latest; but, as the process of feudalization continued, the counts tended to lose their official character and to become the hereditary lords of little territories. In France this development is already discernible in the 11th century, and with its devaluation there arose the practice of applying the title of count very loosely. By the 12th century any lord of moderate status might style himself count, no less than the truly great feudatories of Flanders and Toulouse; and even in the 13th century, when the organization of the French kingdom became more stable, the title might mean much or comparatively little.

      The development of the system of royal bailliages from the beginning of the 13th century onward served progressively to restrict the counts' rights of legislation, judiciary, and private war. (Later, in the 16th century, the counts lost their right to mint money.) Moreover, gradually the great fiefs were reunited under the French crown, after which they were granted only in appanage (the territory itself being administered as a province of the kingdom); counts simply retained various privileges. Later countships, under the First Empire and the subsequent monarchies and empire, had no territorial significance but were made hereditary in order of primogeniture.

Germany

      Although in Germany the title of count (Graf) had become hereditary in most cases as early as the 10th century, the counts retained something of an official character rather longer than in France. In the 12th century, however, seemingly by Emperor Frederick I (Barbarossa), they were given authority to maintain the public peace in the district under their control—an authority that until 1100 had belonged to the dukes. Thenceforward the term countship signified the territory within which the count had powers of life and death.

      From the beginning of the 12th century, a number of counts appeared in western Germany, taking their titles simply from the castles they held, and having no obvious connection with any official status. In Frederick Barbarossa's time certain freemen of the higher class, such as Vögte, or “advocates,” began to style themselves as counts. In the 13th and 14th centuries there are instances of new countships received as fiefs from dukes.

      Within the Holy Roman Empire there gradually developed distinctions between ordinary counts and counts of the empire (Reichsgrafen), who became members of the college of counts (Grafenkollegium), a component of the Diet of the empire. After the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, the counts of the empire were mediatized—i.e., made subject to the sovereigns of the various German states instead of being “immediate” subjects of the emperor alone. The federal Diet, in 1829, however, recognized their right to the special style of Erlaucht (“Illustrious Highness”).

Italy

      With the decay of Carolingian authority, a system of countships based on cities grew up in Italy. Probably none were dependent on dukes, the ducal title being then comparatively rare, especially in northern Italy. The rise of communes meant the end of the countship's former significance, but as a mark of privilege, the title of count was quite liberally bestowed by the popes and other sovereigns of the peninsula well into modern times.

Spain

      In Spain the countship developed under Visigothic influence in the kingdom of Asturias-León and under Frankish influence in Catalonia and in the country immediately south of the Pyrenees. By uniting the Catalan countships, the counts of Barcelona made themselves into near sovereign princes, comparable at least to the powerful counts of Flanders and Toulouse; and the Carolingian countship of Aragon was the nucleus of the kingdom of that name. The countship of Castile, on the other hand, from which the kingdom of Castile emerged, was originally a frontier district of the kingdom of Asturias-León. Here the official character of the counts as district administrators appointed by the kings was preserved until the end of the 11th century, when the principle of hereditary lordships of one sort or another emerged and ultimately prevailed. Under the Spanish monarchies of the Renaissance and later, the title of count was infrequently conferred.

Russia and Poland

      In Russia, where the title of count was not introduced until Peter the Great's time, it came to be given usually to officials of a certain rank in the government service. In Poland there were no counts before the partitions of the late 18th century, when the title was introduced by the Russians, Austrians, and Prussians.

England's earls

      The title of earl (the English equivalent of count, from the Danish jarl) was first introduced into England under King Canute of Denmark and of Norway (king of England 1016–35), but prior to this the duties of an earl, the administration of a shire or province on behalf of the king, were performed by ealdormen. Earl is thus the oldest title and rank of English nobles extant today. It was also the highest until as late as 1337, when Edward, the Black Prince, (Edward The Black Prince) was created Duke of Cornwall by his father, Edward III.

      Initially the earls wielded administrative authority over several (modern) counties, but, after the Norman Conquest in 1066, the earl's duties were theoretically restricted to a single county, although some were earls of more than one county. Under the Norman kings earldoms became hereditary, but their representation of the king was lost to the sheriffs, and then in 1328, with the creation of Roger Mortimer as Earl of March, the essential association of earldoms with specific territories was abandoned. From the 18th century the practice developed of simply adding the grantee's surname (imitating a style of the 11th–12th centuries, when, for example, the Earl of Buckingham was styled Earl Giffard), so that the style of the Earl of Place-name was now supplemented by that of Earl Surname.

      The rules of succession to earldoms were originally those for the inheritance of fiefs in feudal law, so that, for example, an earldom might pass to a woman, her husband receiving the title of earl in her right, but from the reign of Richard II earldoms could be created for life (Sir Guichard d'Angle, Earl of Huntingdon in 1377) or with inheritance limited to male heirs. By the 1963 Peerage Act, an earl, in common with other British peers, may, within one year of inheriting his title, renounce it for life; then, during his lifetime, it remains dormant.

Scotland's earls

      While England's shires were ruled for the king by ealdormen, the Pictish provinces in the north of what subsequently became Scotland were ruled by the mormaers, the Great Stewards. At the beginning of the 12th century, in the reign of Alexander I, they became known as earls, seven of whom formed a Carolingian style of peerage known as the Seven Earls of Scotland. With the adoption of the Saxon title of earl (undoubtedly owed to the influence of Alexander's Saxon mother, the sainted Queen Margaret) and its integration with the Celtic mormaer, these powerful men added a personal title of dignity to their territorial title and judicial status. Their successors under Alexander's brother, King David I, were integrated into the Flemish-Norman system of feudalism so that the lands for which they were responsible, and which had been held by the tribes they ruled, now became their own as tenants-in-chief of the crown. More earldoms were created in the following reigns, until there were 13, but the Seven Earls (chosen as needed from the eventual 13) had become a constitutional and privileged body of great power acting as guardians of the realm and principal lay advisers to the king. However, at the end of the 13th century, at the time England's King Edward I was attempting to subdue and conquer Scotland, the political turmoil was such that the power of the earls was reduced to that of those of England.

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