per contra en · ADV
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin per contra.
Meanings
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(archaic, not-comparable) in contrast, on the contrary
[…]Per contra, Hobbes, who was no tyrannophobe, declared instead that political citizens were as a God to one another, while non-political men were to one another as arrant wolves (II, h).
1934, John Laird, Hobbes, page 66:Lord Oxford has been a twelvemonth in Herefordshire, as far from us, literally, though not geographically, as if he had been with you in Ireland. He has writ no more to us, than if we were still ministers of state. But, in the balance of account, per contra, I have lord Harley at London; and have either lived with him at Wimple, or upon him here, ever since his father left us.
1720 May 4, Matthew Prior, letter to Jonathan Swift: