The Etymology of Compare
To compare two things is, etymologically, to declare them equals β at least long enough to examine them side by side.βββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββ Latin comparare joined com- ('together') with par ('equal'), producing a verb that meant 'to pair, to match.' The root par has one of the richest families in English: pair, peer, parity, and the golfer's par all descend from it. Old French borrowed comparare as comparer, and English adopted it in the 15th century. Shakespeare used 'Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?' not as a question about measurement but as a declaration of equal standing: placing someone alongside something glorious. The phrase 'beyond compare' preserves the oldest sense most clearly β it means something stands so far above everything else that no equal can be found to set beside it. Modern usage has shifted the emphasis from equality to difference: we now compare mainly to find distinctions. But the word remembers a time when the point was not to rank things but to honour them by placing them together.