Editing Accounting (section)

==Etymology==
[[File:Hauptbuch Hochstetter vor 1828.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Early 19th-century [[ledger]]]]
Both the words "accounting" and "accountancy" were in use in [[United Kingdom|Great Britain]] by the mid-1800s and are derived from the words ''accompting'' and ''accountantship'' used in the 18th century.<ref name = "LN 2009">Labardin, Pierre, and Marc Nikitin. 2009. "Accounting and the Words to Tell It: An Historical Perspective." ''Accounting, Business & Financial History'' 19 (2): 149–166.</ref> In [[Middle English]] (used roughly between the 12th and the late 15th century), the verb "to account" had the form ''accounten'', which was derived from the Old French word ''aconter'',<ref name = "B 1984">Baladouni, Vahé. 1984. "Etymological Observations on Some Accounting Terms." ''The Accounting Historians Journal'' 11 (2): 101–109.</ref> which is in turn related to the [[Vulgar Latin]] word ''computare'', meaning "to reckon". The base of ''computare'' is ''putare'', which "variously meant to prune, to purify, to correct an account, hence, to count or calculate, as well as to think".<ref name = "B 1984"/>

The word "[[accountant]]" is derived from the French word {{lang|fr|compter}}, which is also derived from the Italian and [[Latin]] word {{lang|la|computare}}. The word was formerly written in English as "accomptant", but in process of time the word, which was always pronounced by dropping the "p", became gradually changed both in [[pronunciation]] and in [[orthography]] to its present form.<ref>Pixley, Francis William: Accountancy—constructive and recording accountancy (Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons, Ltd, London, 1900), p4</ref>

=== Terminology ===
'''Accounting''' has variously been defined as the keeping or preparation of the financial records of transactions of the firm, the analysis, verification and reporting of such records and "the [[Generally accepted accounting principles|principles]] and procedures of accounting"; it also refers to the [[Job (role)|job]] of being an [[accountant]].<ref name = "Cambridge Business Accounting">{{cite web |url=http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/business-english/accounting |title=accounting noun – definition in the Business English Dictionary |year=2013 |website=Cambridge Dictionaries Online |publisher=Cambridge University Press |access-date=30 December 2013 |archive-date=2 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150702062650/http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/business-english/accounting |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name = "Cambridge British Accounting">{{cite web |url=http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/accounting?q=accounting |title=accounting noun – definition in the British English Dictionary & Thesaurus |year=2013 |website=Cambridge Dictionaries Online |publisher=Cambridge University Press |access-date=30 December 2013 |archive-date=2 November 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141102082918/http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/accounting?q=accounting |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name = "MW 2013 accounting">{{cite web |url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/accounting |title=accounting |year=2013 |website=Merriam-Webster |publisher=Merriam-Webster, Incorporated |access-date=30 December 2013 |archive-date=23 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220723235833/https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/accounting |url-status=live }}</ref>

'''Accountancy''' refers to the [[Job (role)|occupation]] or [[profession]] of an accountant,<ref name = "MW 2013 accountancy">{{cite web |url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/accountancy |title=accountancy |year=2013 |website=Merriam-Webster |publisher=Merriam-Webster, Incorporated |access-date=30 December 2013 |archive-date=29 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220729092830/https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/accountancy |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name = "Cambridge Business Accountancy">{{cite web |url=http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/business-english/accountancy?q=accountancy |title=accountancy noun – definition in the Business English Dictionary |year=2013 |website=Cambridge Dictionaries Online |publisher=Cambridge University Press |access-date=30 December 2013 |archive-date=19 October 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141019020532/http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/business-english/accountancy?q=accountancy |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name = "Cambridge British Accountancy">{{cite web |url=http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/accountancy?q=accountancy |title=accountancy noun – definition in the British English Dictionary & Thesaurus |year=2013 |website=Cambridge Dictionaries Online |publisher=Cambridge University Press |access-date=30 December 2013 |archive-date=19 October 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141019014728/http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/accountancy?q=accountancy |url-status=live }}</ref> particularly in [[British English]].<ref name = "Cambridge Business Accounting" /><ref name = "Cambridge British Accounting" />