Today at the subway, I saw the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency logo on a wall. I was surprised by the word comptroller. Riding the subway now, researching. Interesting.
Interestingly, it’s pronounced the same as “controller” and essentially means the same thing.
According to some sources, the term “comptroller” emerged in the 1800s due to a careless spelling mistake when writing the word “controller”. Ever since, this spelling stuck, and comptroller began to be used to describe a financial officer in the public sector.
But there’s also reason to believe that the mistake was not accidental.
It is written that “controller” originates from the Latin word “contrarotulator” or the French “countreroller”, which means “keeper of the duplicate register”. Apparently, people mistakenly associated this title with the French word “computer” (not related to computers; it refers to someone who counts). As a result, a needless word-bug was born, yet it has stuck around, at least for naming a government office.
Hi, I'm Rauf Aliev. 