to number or add up; persons of high rank in some European countries; things that matter or have importance.
From Old French 'conter' derived from Latin 'computare' meaning to calculate, from 'com-' (together) and 'putare' (to think). The nobility meaning comes from Latin 'comes' meaning companion or courtier.
The phrase 'what counts' reveals something deep—we use a word for numbers and calculation to describe what matters morally, as if importance is something you can measure like math, showing how the abstract borrowed from the concrete.
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