What is Accounting or Accountancy? The word “Accountant” is derived from the French word “Compter”, means “count”. “Compter” itself is originated from Latin word “Computare”. The word was then written in English as “Accomptant”. This word was always pronounced by dropping the “p”, became gradually changed both in pronunciation and in orthography to its present form, “Accountant”. (Pixley, Francis William: Accountancy