1893 November 30, “The W.C.T.U. Convention. Interesting Reports Considered in Relation to the Several Departments of the Work. Suggested Lines of Development—Programme for the Closing Day.”, inThe Daily Colonist, volume LXX, number148, Victoria, B.C.,page 3, column 1:
[…] it is useless to pray “Thy kingdom come” and votecontra or stay away from the polls;[…]
Bartoli, Matteo (1906)Il Dalmatico: Resti di un’antica lingua romanza parlata da Veglia a Ragusa e sua collocazione nella Romània appenino-balcanica, Rome: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, published2000
“contra”, inKielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish][1] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki:Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland),2004–, retrieved2023-07-02
Xavier Varela Barreiro, Xavier Gómez Guinovart (2006–2018) “contra”, inCorpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela:Instituto da Lingua Galega
FromProto-Italic*komterād, ablative singular feminine of*komteros(“the other of the two who meet, opposite”). The ablative singular masculine/neuter of the same is continued inLatincontrō-, cognate toOscancontrud. Ultimately from*kom- +*-teros; thus, adoublet ofcum, comparable to the relation betweenintrā andin, andextrā andex, but unlike these lacking external cognates, and therefore of Italic origin.[1]
The change from instrumental/ablative to accusative is caused by*-teros used adverbially.
^De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “contrā”, inEtymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill,→ISBN,page132
“contra”, inCharlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879)A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
“contra”, inCharlton T. Lewis (1891)An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
"contra", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’sGlossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
contra inGaffiot, Félix (1934)Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894)Latin Phrase-Book[2], London:Macmillan and Co.
to contradict some one:dicere contra aliquem oraliquid (notcontradicere alicui)
it is a breach of duty to..:contra officium est c. Inf.
for the advantage of the state; in the interests of the state:e re publica (opp.contra rem p.)
a thing is illegal:aliquid contra legem est
to foster revolutionary projects:contra rem publicam sentire
to be guilty of high treason:contra rem publicam facere
to conspire with some one:conspirare cum aliquo (contra aliquem)
against all law, human and divine:contra ius fasque
contra inRamminger, Johann (2016 July 16 (last accessed))Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700[3], pre-publication website, 2005-2016
Inherited fromLatincontrā. Old Spanish hadcuentra as well, with diphthongization of stressed Latin /ŏ/. As the word was generally atonic, the unstressed variantcontra prevailed over time.
