countervail

English

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman countrevaloir (Old French contrevaloir), from Latin contrā valēre (“to be strong against”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈkaʊntəveɪl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Verb

countervail (third-person singular simple present countervails, present participle countervailing, simple past and past participle countervailed)

1. (obsolete) To have the same value or number as.
   • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act IIII, scene i:

     Nay could their numbers counteruaile the ſtars
     Or [euer] driſling drops of April ſhowers,
     Or withered leaues that Autume ſhaketh down,
     Yet would the Souldane by his conquering power:
     So ſcatter and conſume them in his rage,
     That not a man ſhal liue to rue their fall.

2. To counter, counteract, counterbalance, neutralize, or negate.
   • c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene vi], page 63, column 2:

     It cannot counteruaile the exchange of joy / That one ſhort minute giues me in her ſight:

   • 1834, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], chapter II, in The Last Days of Pompeii. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […]; successor to Henry Colburn, →OCLC, book IV, page 209:

     […] should I find thine ear closed and thy heart hardened, what hope for myself could countervail the despair for thee?

   • 2020 February 8, Patrick Boucheron, “'Real power is fear': what Machiavelli tells us about Trump in 2020”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     When justice stops being effective (or when crimes of corruption stop being punished) and when political vio­lence is no longer a threat, there is nothing left to cause fear in those who govern shamelessly, that is, buoyed by a mood they aren’t in control of and that no one is on hand to countervail.

3. To compensate for.
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 38, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book I, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:

     I am one of those who thinke their fruit can no way countervaile this losse.

   • c. 1700, Roger L'Estrange, Seneca's Morals:

     countervail a very confiderable Advantage to all Men of Letters

   • 1988, Richard Ellmann, The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry, 2nd edition, New York: W.W. Norton, page 539:

     If [Wilfred] Owen preserves his youthful romanticism, or at least a shell of it, he uses it to countervail the horrifying scenes he describes, just as he poses his own youth against the age-old spectacle of men dying in pain and futility.

Usage notes

• Now chiefly used adjectivally as countervailing.

Derived terms

• countervailability
• countervailable
• countervailance
• countervailingly
• uncountervailed

 

Related terms

• counterargue
• counterexample
• prevail

 

Translations

to counteract, counterbalance or neutralize

• Bulgarian: уравновесявам (bg) (uravnovesjavam)
• Finnish: tasoittaa (fi)

to compensate for

• Bulgarian: компенсирам (bg) (kompensiram)
• Finnish: kompensoida (fi)
• Russian: компенсировать (ru) (kompensirovatʹ)

Anagrams

• involucrate