The story
- Latin · derived fromcontrārius“opposite, opposed, contrary”
- Old French · derived fromcontraire
- Middle English · inherited fromcontrarie
- English todaycontrary
From Middle English contrarie, compare French contraire, from Old French contraire, from Latin contrārius (“opposite, opposed, contrary”), from contrā (“against”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.