Etymologically
Log in

computer

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 15 October 2026 at 19:31. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /kəmˈpjuː.tə/, US /kəmˈpjuː.t̬ɚ/[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English compute + -er,[2][3] the verb being from Latin computāre (“to calculate”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who makes calculations, a reckoner: 1646,[5][6] or the 1640s,[2] especially someone employed to calculate in an observatory or in surveying.[4][3]

Semantic evolution

The first computers were people, not machines.[4] Johnson (1755) defined the word as “reckoner; accountant; calculator”.[7] A calculating machine of any type was called a computer from 1897,[2][5] and the modern sense, a programmable electronic device for calculations and logical operations, dates from the 1940s:[4] Etymonline records it under this name in 1945, and ENIAC (1946) is usually considered the first.[2] Words formed on it followed: computerese, computerize and computerization from 1960,[2] computer dating from 1966,[5] computer literacy from 1970,[2] and computer virus from 1984.[5] Earlier words for a person who calculates were computator, from about 1600, and computist, from the late 14th century, one skilled in reckoning the calendar.[2]

Timeline

  • 1646 – a person who calculates.[5][6]
  • 1897 – a calculating machine.[2][5]
  • 1945 – a programmable electronic computer.[2]
  • 1960 – computerize, computerese.[2]
  • 1970 – computer literacy.[2]
  • 1984 – computer virus.[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. An electronic device that stores and processes data according to a set of instructions, a program.
  2. (historical) A person who makes calculations, especially one employed to do so.

Word family

  • computerdom
  • computerless
  • computerlike
  • compute
  • computation
  • computing
  • count
  • computerize
  • computist
  • reputation

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.