| 释义 |
controller|kənˈtrəʊlə(r)|
Forms: 4–5 counter-, conter-, cownterroller, counteroller, countrollour, 5 cowntroller, 6 controwler, 7 (contrerollour, -rouler), 6–9 controuler, 6– controller. Also 5– comptroller.
[In ME. counter-roller, -our, a. AF. contrerollour, countreroullour = OF. contre-rolleor (= med.L. contrā-rotulātor), agent-n. from OF. contre-roller, med.L. type *contrārotulāre: see control. (Examples of the agent-noun as name of an official apparently occur earlier than those of the verb.) Already in 15th c. often reduced (as in contemporary Fr. contrôleur) to counterollour, countrollour: the first syllable of this was mistakenly supposed to be count, etymologically compt, and the word was spelt comptroller; this erroneous way of writing the word was especially affected by official scribes, and hence became the established form in connexion with various offices; in these its retention has prob. been partly due to a desire to separate the title from the general modern sense of control.]
1. One who keeps a counter-roll so as to check a treasurer or person in charge of accounts.
[1292Britton i. ii. §16 En presence del viscounte qi nous volums qe soit soen countreroullour en tut soen office.] 1393Langl. P. Pl. C. xii. 298 Selde.. falleþ þe seruant so diepe in arerages As doþ þe reyue oþer þe conterroller [v.rr. counteroller, counterrollers, countrollour] þat rekene mot and acounte. c1450Bk. Curtasye 550 in Babees Bk. (1868) 317 Þer-fore þo countrollour..Wrytes vp þo somme as euery day. 1551T. Wilson Logike 47 b, Comptroller or any other officer in the common weale. 1780Burke Sp. Econ. Ref. Wks. III. 293 There is taken away..the treasurer, the comptroller (for a comptroller is hardly necessary where there is no treasurer), etc.
2. Hence a title of office:
a. A household officer whose duty was primarily to check expenditure, and so to manage in general; a steward. Now chiefly used in the household of the sovereign, and in those of members of the royal family, and spelt comptroller.
1441Hen. VI. in Ellis Orig. Lett. ii. 35 I. 107 Sir Thomas Stanley, countrollour of oure householde. 1461Paston Lett. No. 411 II. 43 The sewer wyll not tak no men no dyschys till they be comawndyd by the Cownterroller. 1538Leland Itin. VI. 2 One Fogge..that was Countrowlar to Edward the Fowrthe. 1613Shakes. Hen. VIII, i. iii. 69 For I was spoke to, with Sir Henry Guilford This night to be Comptrollers. 1641Hinde J. Bruen xxxv. 110 Her father..[was] with that honorable Personage Henry Earle of Darby, being Controller of his house. 1710Swift Lett. (1767) III. 7 Sir John Holland, comptroller of the houshold. 1856Froude Hist. Eng. I. 299 The archbishop sent his comptroller to the Prior of Christ Church.
b. An officer having similar duties in various public offices. In some of these the spelling is at present controller, in others comptroller, q.v.
Occurring in many specific titles: e.g. Controller (or Comptroller) of the Hanaper, Controller of the Mint, Controller of the Navy, Controller of the Pell, Controller of the Pipe; see these words.
1486Act 3 Hen. VII, c. 8 The Customer or Comptroller of the same Port. 1548Latimer Ploughers (Arb.) 27 Should we haue ministers of the church to be comptrollers of the myntes? 1594Blundevil Exerc. vii. xi. (ed. 7) 664 William Borough controuler of her Maiesties Navy. 1679Plot Staffordsh. (1686) 277 Controller of all the Excise in England and Wales. 1777Robertson Hist. Amer. I. ii. 75 Alonso de Quintanilla, comptroller of the finances in Castile. 1835Sir J. Ross N.W. Pass. ii. 8 My excellent friend Sir Byam Martin, Comptroller of the Navy. 1845Stephen Laws Eng. II. 171 An officer in London, called the comptroller in bankruptcy.
†3. One who takes to task, calls in question, reproves, or censures; a censorious critic. Obs.
1566Drant Horace Epist. ii. i. (1567) G iv, Of dumpishnes, enuye, and ire a sharpe controwler he. 1583Fulke Defence xviii. 532 These controllers..of the Latin text by the Hebrew. 1589R. Harvey Pl. Perceuall 21 Pert Controulers of Magistracy. 1614Bp. Hall Agst. Brown §2 Recoll. Treat. 721 My omissions were of ignorance..An easie imputation from so great a controuler.
4. a. One who controls or keeps under control; one who restrains, directs, or manages.
1541Barnes Wks. (1573) 312/1 Rulers, and counsellers, and controllers. 1630Prynne Anti-Armin. 115 It makes the great controwler of the world, a bare spectator. 1772Priestley Inst. Relig. (1782) I. 258 God [is] the sole controller of the laws. 1884Contemp. Rev. Oct. 518 The State stands..as regulator and controller of the family.
b. transf. of things inanimate.
1630R. Johnson's Kingd. & Commw. 588 The puissance of their neighbours hath beene..a controler to their famous invasions. 1654Whitlock Zootomia 343 Feare, the controuler onely of those that would be bad. 1864Burton Scot Abr. I. v. 250 Catholicism was the great rival and controller of the feudal strength and tyranny.
c. A piece of mechanism that controls or regulates motion; Naut. an apparatus for regulating or checking the motion of a chain-cable as it runs towards the hawse-holes.
1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Chain-cable controller, a contrivance for the prevention of one part of the chain riding on another while heaving in. 1868Nares Seamanship (ed. 4) 129 A link of the cable, which in running out is caught in the controller. 1879Thomson & Tait Nat. Phil. I. i. 491 Regulating its motion by an abutting controller. 1886Bicycling News 23 Apr. 437/2 The machine..has..a very effective automatic steering controller.
d. Electr. An arrangement of switches, contacts, rheostats, and electromagnets, manipulated by a handle or handles, by means of which the current of an electric motor may be controlled.
1898E. J. Houston Dict. Electr. Words (ed. 4) 726/1 Controller,..an electric switching mechanism for controlling the speed of a motor or motors. 1901Daily News 3 Jan. 6/4 The controller, the main handle of which regulates the four motors going either ahead or astern. 1902Encycl. Brit. XXVIII. 97/2 There is a reversing lever on the controllers separate from the controller handle. 1904Electr. Investm. 7 Dec. 769/2 The controller goes automatically to the ‘off’ position on being released.
5. controller-general: an officer entrusted with the supreme direction or control.
1562in Vicary's Anat. (1888) App. iii. 143 Controller generall of all y⊇ Cities hospitalles. 1703Lond. Gaz. No. 3716/3 Comptroller-General of the Revenues of these Countries. 1790Burke Fr. Rev. Wks. V. 416 Grand financier of confiscation, and comptroller general of sacrilege. 1863P. Barry Dockyard Econ. 58 The Controller-General should also submit a carefully prepared estimate of the entire cost of the ship.
Hence conˈtrollership, the office of controller.
1495Act 11 Hen. VII, c. 33 §18 Thoffice of Comptrollershippe of all plees. 1837Carlyle Fr. Rev. i. ii. v, We saw Turgot cast forth from the Controllership. 1871Daily News 8 Feb., In 1868..the Controllership of the Navy was associated with the office of Third Lord of the Admiralty. |