Count

Count

Count (male) or Countess (female) is a title in European countries for a noble of varying status, but historically deemed to convey an approximate rank intermediate between the highest and lowest titles of nobility. The word count came into English from the French comte, itself from Latin comes—in its accusative comitem—meaning "companion", and later "companion of the emperor, delegate of the emperor". The adjective form of the word is "comital". The British and Irish equivalent is an earl (whose wife is a "countess", for lack of an English term). Alternative names for the "Count" rank in the nobility structure are used in other countries, such as Graf in Germany and Hakushaku during the Japanese Imperial era.

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Famous quotes containing the word count:

    I should count myself the coward if I left them, my Lord Howard,
    To these Inquisition dogs and the devildoms of Spain.’
    Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892)

    We count the courtesies accorded us by unpopular people as offenses.
    Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)

    What culture lacks is the taste for anonymous, innumerable germination. Culture is smitten with counting and measuring; it feels out of place and uncomfortable with the innumerable; its efforts tend, on the contrary, to limit the numbers in all domains; it tries to count on its fingers.
    Jean Dubuffet (1901–1985)