ABSTRACT

The word ‘counterpart’ is derived from the French contre-partie meaning the complementary or opposite part. In modern English usage it has a number of specifically technical connotations: in law, for instance, it refers to the opposite part of an indenture, and in music it indicates a part written ‘against’ or to accompany another. Its more general sense is always that of ‘the other half’, ‘One of two parts which fit’, according to The Oxford English Dictionary. The precise relationship between the two fitting parts depends, however, on the interpretation of the vital particle ‘counter’ which came into English from the Latin contra via the French contre. While ‘other’ is a neutrally open word, contra (and hence ‘counter’) carries two quite distinct, even conflicting meanings for it can imply either ‘against’, ‘Opposite’ or, on the other hand, ‘in return’, ‘parallel’, ‘complementary’. This inherent dualism of the particle accounts for the apparently contradictory synonyms to ‘counterpart’ given in dictionaries. On the whole nowadays the ‘against’, which is primary in the Latin contra, has been weakened and absorbed into the ‘complementary’ which has become the dominant element. So in common parlance a ‘counterpart’ denotes a person or a thing forming a natural complement to another, resembling the other, possessing supplementary qualities and performing similar, corresponding functions. But beneath the married surface there still lurks at least a hint of the original antagonism. Among the analogies to ‘counterpart’ in Roget’s Thesaurus both aspects are represented, although the warring relatives — ‘contraposition’, ‘inversion’, ‘reverse’, ‘antithesis’, ‘polarity’, ‘opposite side’ — are far outnumbered by the peaceful co-existers: ‘analogue’, ‘the like’, ‘match’, ‘pendant’, ‘fellow’, ‘pair’, ‘mate’, ‘double’, ‘family likeness’, ‘similarity’, ‘affinity’, ‘parallelism’, ‘resemblance’, ‘correspondence’, ‘copy’, ‘facsimile’, ‘duplicate’, ‘echo’, ‘transfer’, ‘reflection’, etc.