Recent times  find the definition of the word "control" sliding in its own, newly wrong direction, throwing it and its users further off. "Control" is a slang word, now, for "mind control,"  slyly updated to correspond with our newly  updated forms of wage-slavery,  mind-enslavement, etc. Things endlessly condemned and dissected but never scheduled for redaction. Presumably as such redaction could peel back the surface to reveal who is "in"   in  in  "control"   control  control.  Sorry, did i just hear something? Anyways.

   The permission to graft this new hybrid of the meaning of the word "control" seems to be coming from a long-standing convention of smoothing together the "device-related" usage of it as a noun (entry 2, sense 3b, Webster's Collegiate 10th ed.) with the "slavery" variant of the "to exert a restraining or directing influence upon" usage as a verb (entry 1, sense 2a, ibid.) Now since the latter is an implied variation in usage, then I propose the term "implied variant" to describe such a thing.

CORRECTION:

   Previous post contained etymology from memory. Here's the etymology from Webster's Tenth Edition Collegiate Dictionary:

¹con♦trol  \kυn-^'trΟl\     vt [ME controllen. fr. MF contreroller, fr. contrerolle copy of an account, audit, fr. ML contrarotulus, fr. L contra + ML rotulus roll -- more at ROLL] (15c)

²con♦trol n, often attrib (1590)

   The first definition listed above, the verb, is defined as follows:

1 a archaic: to check, test, or verify by evidence or experiments  b : to to incorporate suitable controls in < a controlled experiment >  2 a : to exercise restraining or directing influence over: REGULATE b : to have power over: RULE c : to reduce the incidence or severity of esp. to innocuous levels < ~ an insect population > < ~ a disease > syn see CONDUCT

   The second definition listed above, the noun, is defined as follows:

1 a : an act or instance of controlling also : power or authority to guide or manage b : skill in the use of a tool, instrument, technique, or artistic medium c : the regulation of economic activity esp. by government directive -- usu. used in pl. < price ~s >  2 : RESTRAINT, RESERVE  3 : one that controls: as a (1) : an experiment in which the subjects are treated as in a parallel experiment except for omission of the procedure or agent under test and which is used as a standard of comparison in judging experimental effects -- called also control experiment  (2) : one (as an organism, culture or group) that is part of a control  b : a device or mechanism used to regulate or guide the operation of a machine, apparatus, or system  c : an organization that directs a spaceflight < mission ~ > d : a personality or spirit believed to actuate the utterances or performances of a spiritualist medium  syn see POWER

   Let us start with the, I suspect, bullshit etymology.

   2nd entry - 1590 - first of shift?

   As  regards the citiation of contra + rotulus (prefix + noun) for a verb: does this happen often? Anyone with more information email me.       

   Now on to the bulshit definitions, starting with #1.

   I see an evolution here, via the order of listings of senses.  "Slipping in" the part about "RULE" under subsection b of sense 2 is not slipping by me. The compensatory sense of sense 2 c  is also a slap in the face.

   Suffice it to say that if the same person wrote both of these, he most likely felt remorse after writing the first, overdoing the second as a kind of messed-up apology. This entire second definition should be condensed to no more than: economic or administrative control, and experimental control (sense 1); and device control (sense 2).

   What are the tests for combining senses? Overlap in usage? More?