accounting (English)
Where does "accounting" come from?
The word accounting originated in the late 14th century as the gerund of 'account,' which evolved from the Latin 'computare,' meaning 'to sum up.' This Latin root combined 'com-' (together) and 'putare' (to reckon or cleanse). By the time it entered English via Old French and Middle English, it had shifted from the basic act of counting numbers to represent the formal organization of business and financial transactions.
Full etymology tree
- accounting (English), 'present participle and gerund of account'
- compound account (English), 'A registry of pecuniary transactions; a written or printed statement of business dealings or debts and credits, and also of other things subjected to a reckoning or review.'
- inherited acounte (Middle English), 'An enumeration or count; the act of counting.'
- inherited acunte (Anglo-Norman)
- inherited aconte (Old French)
- deverbal aconter (Old French), 'to tell; to inform of'
- inherited computō (Latin), 'to calculate, compute, reckon together'
- inherited *putos (Proto-Italic)
- inherited putus (Latin), 'pure'
- inherited *pewH- (Proto-Indo-European), 'to be clean, pure'
- inherited putus (Latin), 'pure'
- inherited *putos (Proto-Italic)
- inherited computō (Latin), 'to calculate, compute, reckon together'
- deverbal aconter (Old French), 'to tell; to inform of'
- inherited aconte (Old French)
- inherited acunte (Anglo-Norman)
- inherited acounte (Middle English), 'An enumeration or count; the act of counting.'
- compound -ing (English), 'Used to form nouns or noun-like words (or elements of noun phrases) from verbs, denoting the act of doing something, an action, or the embodiment of an action.'
- inherited ing (Middle English)
- inherited ing (Old English), 'meadow, water meadow, ing'
- inherited *angijō (Proto-Germanic), 'A low lying meadow in a valley or near a river'
- inherited *h₂énkos (Proto-Indo-European), 'curve, bend'
- derived *h₂enk- (Proto-Indo-European), 'curve, bend'
- inherited *h₂énkos (Proto-Indo-European), 'curve, bend'
- inherited *angijō (Proto-Germanic), 'A low lying meadow in a valley or near a river'
- inherited ing (Old English), 'meadow, water meadow, ing'
- inherited ing (Middle English)
- compound account (English), 'A registry of pecuniary transactions; a written or printed statement of business dealings or debts and credits, and also of other things subjected to a reckoning or review.'
Direct ancestors
Updated June 2026
Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris