— controllership , n.
/keuhn troh"leuhr/ , n.
1. an employee, often an officer, of a business firm who checks expenditures, finances, etc.; comptroller.
2. a person who regulates, directs, or restrains.
3. Brit. Aeron. a dispatcher.
4. a regulating mechanism; governor.
5. Also called control unit, processor . Computers. the key component of a peripheral device, as a terminal, printer, or external storage unit, that contains the circuitry necessary to interpret and execute instructions fed into the device.
[ 1350-1400; ME countrollour countrero ( u ) llour, MF contrerolleur, equiv. to contrerolle duplicate roll (see CONTROL) + -eur, -our -or- -OR 2 or -ator- -ATOR ]