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Etymology: Pre-20th Century

The document discusses the etymology and history of the term "computer". It traces the earliest uses of the word "computer" in 1613 to refer to a person who performs calculations. By the late 19th century, the term began taking on its more modern meaning of a machine that carries out computations. The document then provides a brief history of computing hardware prior to the 20th century, including early counting aids like tally sticks and abacuses, as well as more advanced ancient Greek devices like the Antikythera mechanism, one of the earliest known analog computers.

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Gary M Trajano
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47 views

Etymology: Pre-20th Century

The document discusses the etymology and history of the term "computer". It traces the earliest uses of the word "computer" in 1613 to refer to a person who performs calculations. By the late 19th century, the term began taking on its more modern meaning of a machine that carries out computations. The document then provides a brief history of computing hardware prior to the 20th century, including early counting aids like tally sticks and abacuses, as well as more advanced ancient Greek devices like the Antikythera mechanism, one of the earliest known analog computers.

Uploaded by

Gary M Trajano
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Etymology

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first known use of the word "computer" was in 1613
in a book called The Yong Mans Gleanings by English writer Richard Braithwait: "I haue [sic] read
the truest computer of Times, and the best Arithmetician that euer [sic] breathed, and he reduceth
thy dayes into a short number." This usage of the term referred to a person who carried out
calculations or computations. The word continued with the same meaning until the middle of the 20th
century. From the end of the 19th century the word began to take on its more familiar meaning, a
machine that carries out computations.[1]
The Online Etymology Dictionary gives the first attested use of "computer" in the "1640s, [meaning]
"one who calculates,"; this is an "... agent noun from compute (v.)". The Online Etymology Dictionary
states that the use of the term to mean "calculating machine" (of any type) is from 1897." The Online
Etymology Dictionary indicates that the "modern use" of the term, to mean "programmable digital
electronic computer" dates from "... 1945 under this name; [in a] theoretical [sense] from 1937,
as Turing machine".[2]

History
Main article: History of computing hardware

Pre-20th century

The Ishango bone

Devices have been used to aid computation for thousands of years, mostly using one-to-one
correspondence with fingers. The earliest counting device was probably a form of tally stick. Later
record keeping aids throughout the Fertile Crescent included calculi (clay spheres, cones, etc.)
which represented counts of items, probably livestock or grains, sealed in hollow unbaked clay
containers.[3][4]The use of counting rods is one example.

The Chinese Suanpan () (the number represented on this abacus is 6,302,715,408)


The abacus was initially used for arithmetic tasks. The Roman abacus was developed from devices
used in Babylonia as early as 2400 BC. Since then, many other forms of reckoning boards or tables
have been invented. In a medieval European counting house, a checkered cloth would be placed on
a table, and markers moved around on it according to certain rules, as an aid to calculating sums of
money.

The ancient Greek-designed Antikythera mechanism, dating between 150 and 100 BC, is the world's oldest
analog computer.

The Antikythera mechanism is believed to be the earliest mechanical analog "computer", according
to Derek J. de Solla Price.[5] It was designed to calculate astronomical positions. It was discovered in
1901 in the

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