The flat work surface of a kitchen counter or similar fixture.
This compound word combines 'counter' from Old French 'conteoir' (counting table) with 'top.' The surprise is that 'counter' originally had nothing to do with kitchens — it comes from medieval banking! Money changers and merchants used special tables called 'conteoirs' for counting coins and conducting business. These counting tables were so important to commerce that 'counter' became the word for any flat business surface, eventually migrating from banks to shops to kitchens.
Your kitchen countertop is named after medieval banking tables where merchants counted gold coins. The flat surface where you now chop vegetables and make coffee gets its name from the same counting tables that financed the rise of European commerce — proving that even our most domestic spaces have surprisingly commercial origins.
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