The story
- Middle English · inherited fromcompteroller
- English todaycomptroller
From late Middle English compteroller, a spelling variant of countreroller (from which controller) due to folk etymology: the word was thought to have an etymological connection with Middle French compte (“account”) (Middle French compteroleur is attested circa 1375). Originally the two spellings were equivalent and pronounced identically; the modern pronunciation with [mp] is based on the spelling.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.