Etymologically
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calculator

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈkæl.kjə.leɪ.tə(ɹ)/[1]
  • US: /kæl.kjə.leɪ.tɚ/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English calculatour,[2][3] borrowed from Latin calculātor (“a reckoner, accountant”),[4][5][6][3][7] an agent noun from calculō (“to reckon, compute”),[4][5][6] from calculus (“reckoning, account; originally a pebble used as a counter”),[5] a diminutive of calx (“limestone”).[5] The OED compares French calculateur.[4] In modern use the Shorter Oxford takes it as calculate with the suffix -or.[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who calculates, a reckoner: about 1380, in Wyclif's English works.[4][2] Etymonline glosses the first sense as "mathematician".[5]

Semantic evolution

For four centuries the word named only a person;[4] Johnson (1755) defined it as "a computer; a reckoner", when computer too meant a person.[9][4] The OED records it in 1784 for a set of tables that made calculations easier, in the title of a book,[4] while Etymonline dates its use for mechanical adding machines from 1784;[5] the OED's first record of a calculating machine is in a South Kensington Museum catalogue of 1876.[4] Electronic machines were called calculators from 1946, when a heading in Scientific American announced that an electronic calculator used 18,000 tubes;[4][5] the small flat pocket calculator with a keypad and display is the usual sense now.[4][10]

Timeline

  • c. 1380 – a person who calculates.[4][5]
  • 1755 – Johnson defines it as a computer, a reckoner.[9]
  • 1784 – a set of tables for calculating (OED); mechanical adding machines (Etymonline).[4][5]
  • 1876 – a mechanical calculating machine.[4]
  • 1946 – an electronic calculating device.[4][5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. An electronic device for performing arithmetical calculations, especially a small one held in the hand: She checked the bill on her calculator.[10][4][3]
  2. A person who calculates; a reckoner.[10][3][4]
  3. A set of tables used as an aid to calculation.[10][4]

Word family

  • minicalculator
  • pocket calculator

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Stratmann, Francis Henry (1891), A Middle-English Dictionary, revised by Henry Bradley, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  8. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  10. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins