computator

Forms

computātor m (genitive computātōris); third declension^[1][2] Also spelled conputātor.^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin computō (“to reckon, count”) + -tor.^[1][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Seneca is the first to use it, in his letters, of people who reckon up their property most carefully, dīligentissimī computātōrēs.^[1][2][3][4]

Semantic evolution

It meant a calculator or accountant, one who reckons.^[1][2] Augustine uses it of the reckoners of the stars who note and foretell eclipses of the sun and moon,^[3] and the glossaries equate it with calculātor.^[3]

In Medieval Latin Bede uses it of a reckoner of the calendar.^[5] In England it became the title of officials: the tellers of the Exchequer, who counted the money paid in, an official of the mint of Bordeaux, and the auditors of accounts.^[5]

Timeline

• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca speaks of careful reckoners of property.^[1][3][4]
• 354–430 AD – Augustine uses it of astronomers who predict eclipses.^[3][4]
• 1st third of the 8th century AD – Bede uses it of a reckoner of the calendar.^[5][4]
• 1182 – An English pipe roll records payments to the tellers of the Exchequer.^[5]
• 1277 – English accounts use it of the auditors of an account.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A reckoner, calculator, accountant.^[1][2]
2. (Medieval Latin) A teller of the Exchequer; an official of a mint.^[5]
3. (Medieval Latin) An auditor of accounts.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e f g Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press