Meaning

noun navigational instrument for finding directions

noun an area in which something acts or operates or has power or control:

noun the limit of capability

originFrom Middle English compas (“a circle, circuit, limit, form, a mathematical instrument”), from Old French compas, from Medieval Latin compassus (“a circle, a circuit”), from Latin com- (“together”) + passus (“a pace, step, later a pass, way, route”); see pass, pace.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0