Word of the Day

: February 6, 2010

comptroller

noun kun-TROH-ler

What It Means

1 : a royal-household official who examines and supervises expenditures

2 : a public official who audits government accounts and sometimes supervises expenditures

3 : the chief accounting officer of a business enterprise or an institution (as a college)

comptroller in Context

The comptroller verified and approved the financial information of the grant proposal.

Did You Know?

If you think "comptroller" looks like a mistaken spelling of "controller," you're partially right. Today, "comptroller" is an established word that shares one of its meanings (sense 3) with "controller." The term did originate as a misspelling, however. Around the 15th century, Middle English speakers altered the spelling of "conterroller" (meaning "controller," from the Middle French "contrerolleur") under the influence of the Middle French word "compte" ("account"). The resulting word, "comptroller," has attracted criticism over the years. Grammarian Henry Fowler condemned "comptroller" as "not merely archaic, but erroneous" in 1920, and a lexicographical column from 1931 agreed that "comptroller" is "erroneous and should not be accepted as correct." Nevertheless, such modern institutions as colleges and governments continue to have comptrollers. "Comptrollership" occasionally turns up as well.