The power to determine how something behaves, and the means of exercising it. Control implies someone holds it, and that it can be handed over.
Medieval Latin contrarotulus (a duplicate register, counter-roll), from Latin contra- (against) + rotulus (a small roll, diminutive of rota, wheel); the power to determine how something behaves, rooted in checking one record against a duplicate to catch discrepancies.
The medieval root is bookkeeping, not authority — a counter-roll kept to check one record against another for discrepancies. Before it meant command, control meant only the checking, and the power came later, borrowed from the confidence that checking gives.