Compered

[Laurence Horn]

At 4:41 PM -0500 1/30/02, Grant Barrett wrote:
>What is "compered"? The OED suggests obsolete for compared or compeered. A
>Google search turns up about 5,000 results, most of which used it like
>"hosted by" or "emceed by" (such as in "John will be compering an evening if
>light comedy" or "The show was compered by Martina") or are mispellings for
>"compared." It's clearly a Britishism.
>
>http://www.guardian.co.uk/transport/Story/0,2763,641918,00.html
>
>"Up in the roof, explains Nicola Stephenson from the Huddersfield-based arts
>group Culture Company, a hidden camera spots the colour of a waiting
>passenger's clothes and then triggers an audio sequence piped out of hidden
>speakers in the scarlet walls.
>
>"Each segment is compered by a woman's voice, sometimes soothing, sometimes
>testy, just like the commuters below."

Wonder if there's any relation to the Fr. noun "compère" (that's a
grave accent), which denotes a confederate (as of a magician or
con-man, i.e. someone pulling a scam) or, more generally, a crony.
Maybe not.

larry