computer

Etymology

From compute + -er. Doublet of cantore, counter, and kontor. First sense first appears c. 1613 in the works of the poet Richard Brathwait. Second sense first appears c. 1897 in the magazine Engineering.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kəmˈpjuːtə/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /kəmˈpjutɚ/, [kəmˈpʰjuɾɚ]

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːtə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: com‧put‧er

Noun

computer (plural computers)

1. (now rare, chiefly historical) A person employed to perform computations; one who computes. [from 17th c.]
   • 1613, Richard Brathwait, The Yong Mans Gleanings‎, page 1:

     I haue read the truest computer of Times, and the best Arithmetician that euer breathed, and he reduceth thy dayes into a short number: The daies of Man are threescore and ten.

   • 1674, “To the Guardian-Angel”, in Reflexions upon the Devotions of the Roman Church, London: Richard Royston, page 419:

     By which manner of ſpeaking, this Propheteſs, who is ſo exact a Computer, would have us, I ſuppoſe, to conclude, that it would be a great miſtake to think that the number of Angels was either 9, or 11 for one of Men.

   • 1927, J. B. S. Haldane, Possible Worlds and Other Essays‎, London: Chatto & Windus, page 173:

     Only a few years ago Mr. Powers, an American computer, disproved a hypothesis about prime numbers which had held the field for more than 250 years.

   • 2001, Michael L. overton, Numerical Computing with IEEE Floating Point Arithmetic, SIAM, page 1:

     During World War II, scientific laboratories had rooms full of people doing different parts of a complicated calculation using pencil and paper, slide rules, and mechanical calculators. At that time, the word computer referred to a person, and those group calculations may be viewed as the early steps of parallel computing.

   • 2003, Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything, BCA, page 116:

     One Harvard computer, Annie Jump Cannon, used her repetitive acquaintance with the stars to devise a system of stellar classifications so practical that it is still in use today.

   Synonyms: computator, mental calculator, human calculator

   Hyponym: computress

   1. (by restriction, chiefly historical) A male computer.

      Coordinate term: (female) computress

3. A programmable electronic device that performs mathematical calculations and logical operations, especially one that can process, store and retrieve large amounts of data very quickly; now especially, a small one for personal or home use employed for manipulating text or graphics, accessing the Internet, or playing games or media. [from 20th c.]

   Synonyms: processor, (informal) 'puter, (slang) box, machine, calculator; see also Thesaurus:computer

   Hyponyms: desktop, laptop, portable computer, stored-program computer

   I spend around 6 hours a day at the computer.

   As well as saving the photos on my computer, I have them backed up on a USB drive.

   David is a computer expert.

   Janet works at the computer store.

Verb

computer (third-person singular simple present computers, present participle computering, simple past and past participle computered) (rare, nonstandard)

1. (intransitive) To use a computer.
   • 1995 December 31, Roxanne Coyle, “B'days”, in bit.listserv.words-l‎ (Usenet):

     Cool he was computering, though. My dad, who is only in his 60's (mom too) thinks he is too busy to get connected to the internet. Oh well. More bandwidth for the rest of us, huh?

   • 2004, The World According to Mimi Smartypants, London: HarperCollinsEntertainment, →ISBN, page 36:

     I don't know if you have the same violent mood-swing issues that I do, but I was bustling around the house feeling very useful and good, and then I was sitting here computering for a while, and suddenly it was like a giant butterfly net scooped me up and threw me into an old mayonnaise jar, […]

   • 2017 May 16, Alyssa Shelasky, “What I Discovered When I Outsourced My Back Pain”, in New York Magazine‎, New York, N.Y.: New York Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-01-31:

     I'm constantly computering, schlepping, stressing, and hauling ass like the rest of us. We are New Yorkers.

   • 2019 December 20, “Finding Mr. Right”, in Harley Quinn, season 1, episode 4, spoken by Harley Quinn (Kaley Cuoco):

     Yeah, you saw what he could do when he flips out. I mean, how am I going to say no to that? Plus, he does computer good.

2. (transitive) To send via computer.
   • 1988, Marcel Montecino, The Crosskiller, New York, N.Y.: Arbor House; William Morrow, →ISBN, page 351:

     They had immediately computered the description out to the scores of law enforcement agencies in Southern California.

   • 2001, Will Kingdom, Mean Spirit, London […]: Bantam Press, →ISBN, page 428:

     'Nah. It was him hated it more than me. Fish out of water. Cops watching every move he makes. Memos about him computered to every nick in the land. He was too innocent for this hi-tech world, Bobby. Would've been back inside in no time at all.'

3. (transitive) To transfer onto a computer; to computerize.
   • 1972 March 20, Benny L. Kass, quotee, U.S. Government Information Policies and Practices: Administration and Operation of the Freedom of Information Act, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, page 1425:

     I know there are storage warehouses in New York and Virginia and all over the place, St. Louis, and many other places, that keep these things. I think this is a very fertile area for this committee, and perhaps computering it, or microfilm preservation, or things of that sort.

   • 1983, H. Ahrendt, N. Clauer, J. C. Hunziker, K. Weber, “Migration of Folding and Metamorphism in the Rheinische Schiefergebirge Deduced from K-Ar and Rb-Sr Age Determinations”, in Intracontinental Fold Belts: Case Studies in the Variscan Belt of Europe and the Damara Belt in Namibia, Berlin […]: Springer-Verlag, →DOI, →ISBN, page 336:

     Our sincere thanks are due to Antje Reuter, Jens Adam and Uwe Horstmann for computering the manuscript and Ralph Phillips and Kirsten Techmer for proof reading it.

   • 1988, Shimon Applebaum, “Foreward”, in Judaea in Hellenistic and Roman Times, Leiden […]: E. J. Brill, →ISBN, unnumbered page:

     It is also a pleasure to recommend the skill of Irit Markan who carried out the work of 'computering' the text, and of Ivor Ludlam who bore the labour of proof reading—both the English and the Greek.

   • 2010 November 21, Burr, “MFW has been milked dry”, in misc.fitness.weights‎ (Usenet):

     I have 30 years worth of logs some place and they have been computered the last few years and the last few years I think I have posted them to the sites I hang out on.

See also

References

• Richard Brathwaite, Of the Mortalite of Man, 1613
• computer – Oxford English Dictionary, second edition (1989).

Further reading

• Category:computer on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons

Etymology

Borrowed from English computer.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [kʰʌmˈpʰj̊uːd̥ɐ], [kʰʌmˈpʰj̊uːtˢɐ]

Noun

computer c (singular definite computeren, plural indefinite computere)

1. computer (machine)

Alternative forms

• kompjoeter (eye dialect, humorous)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɔmˈpjutər/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: com‧pu‧ter
• Rhymes: -utər

Etymology 1

Unadapted borrowing from English computer.

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin computāre (“to compute, sum up”). See also the doublets compter and conter.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɔ̃.py.te/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Homophones: computai, computé, computée, computées, computés, computez

Verb

computer

1. (archaic, rare) to compute
   • 1802, François-René de Chateaubriand, Génie du christianisme:

     Quant aux ères, ici on compte par l’année de la création, là par olympiade, par la fondation de Rome, par la naissance de Jésus-Christ, par l’époque d’Eusèbe, par celle des Séleucides, celle de Nabonassar, celle des martyrs. Les Turcs ont leur hégire, les Persans leur yezdegerdic. On compute encore par les éres julienne, grégorienne, ibérienne et actienne.

     As the eras, here they compute by the year of the creation, there by olympiads, by the foundation of Rome, by the birth of Christ, by the epoch of Eusebius, by that of Seleucids, of Nabonassar, of the Martyrs. The Turks have their hegira, the Persians their yezdegerdie. The Julian, Gregorian, Iberian and Actian eras, are also employed in computation.

See also

• supputer
• compter

Further reading

• “computer”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• compteur