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Controller vs Comptroller
Posted by bstagen on 01/03/2003 - 12:55
What is the difference in these two job titles? I have always assumed that a Comptroller was used in only the governmental sector. Is that correct?
Thanks
Brian Stagen
Brian Stagen
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Origins of "comptroller"
'Comptroller' is a pseudolearned respelling of 'controller,' taken by English from Old French. The fancy spelling is doubtless due to an erroneous association with French 'compte' "count." The word has fairly recently acquired a new pronunciation based on the misspelling.
TL
Comptroller vs Controller
It's an age thing. I was a Comptroller when I wore a green shade, used post and binders, and had a metal desk. Now that I use indirect lighting, a PC, and work on a synthetic material desk I am a Controller. Back when I was a Comptroller we called it theft when the Company president took company money out of the company bank account and bought his son a car with it. Today we call that a misallocation of company assets. A rose by another name....
Comptroller
My dictionary says "a form of Controller, only now used as a title of an auditor in a Government department (Latin contra and rotulus, a roll".
"comptroller" is a misspelling of "controller."
A Dictionary For Accountants, Fourth Edition, by Eric L. Kohler defines "comptroller" as a misspelling of "controller."
Same
Based on the business dictionaries I looked at, they mean the same thing.