# Am I the only one annoyed at the term "compute"?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-annoyed-at-the-term-compute/1000492
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [April 19, 2024, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-annoyed-at-the-term-compute/1000492 "2024-04-19T06:41:13Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@nate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nate)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2024, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-annoyed-at-the-term-compute/1000492/1 "2024-04-19T06:41:13Z")
I guess I’m firmly in old man territory now but every time I read or hear the usage of “compute” to describe computer capability I just get a little triggered. I think it’s because I remember it being used back in the 80s and then never for 3 decades and now it’s being used again like it never went away.
Or maybe I’m just having a Mandela effect moment and everyone will tell me they’ve been using it constantly for years. Bullshit.
As for why it annoys me, I have no idea. I guess this is how conservatives are made.
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### Author:  [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2024, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-annoyed-at-the-term-compute/1000492/2 "2024-04-19T07:14:34Z")
I am a software engineer. It irritates me no end.
So there are two of us.
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### Author:  [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2024, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-annoyed-at-the-term-compute/1000492/3 "2024-04-19T08:50:09Z")
Could you give us an example of the word’s use, in context?
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### Author:  [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2024, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-annoyed-at-the-term-compute/1000492/4 "2024-04-19T09:31:25Z")
Just off the top of my head:
“I got a new graphics card for compute, not for graphics.”
“How much compute does your new GPU have?”
I’m sure it’s used outside of GPUs. But it is common there. Stuff like crypto currency and AI use compute.
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### Author:  [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2024, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-annoyed-at-the-term-compute/1000492/5 "2024-04-19T09:35:02Z")
Does not compute.
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBAijg5Betw)
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### Author:  [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2024, 9:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-annoyed-at-the-term-compute/1000492/6 "2024-04-19T09:38:53Z")
Compute was originally a perfectly cromulent word, it refers to computing power as a continuous variable rather than discrete which made sense when we moved to cloud computing. Before cloud, we talked about having individual machines and deploying new, named machines. The change in paradigm was that compute was now just a dial you could turn by hand or autoscale via APIs.
Of course, people started misusing the term in an attempt to sound cooler and more modern but the original meaning was distinct and necessary.
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### Author:  [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2024, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-annoyed-at-the-term-compute/1000492/7 "2024-04-19T10:34:21Z")
So “compute” as a noun? And seemingly, a noun that dies not obey the rules of grammar?
I agree. That sounds very stupid.
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### Author:  [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2024, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-annoyed-at-the-term-compute/1000492/8 "2024-04-19T11:16:26Z")
> [@BigT](#):
>
> “I got a new graphics card for compute, not for graphics.”
>
> “How much compute does your new GPU have?”
I’ve never heard the word used in this manner. It’s ridiculous and immediately irritating. I’ve heard it used, “that does not compute”, meaning “that”, whatever it is, does not make any logical sense.
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### Author:  [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2024, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-annoyed-at-the-term-compute/1000492/9 "2024-04-19T11:31:30Z")
I have never been annoyed at the term compute until this happened:
> [@BigT](#):
>
> “How much compute does your new GPU have?”
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### Author:  [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2024, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-annoyed-at-the-term-compute/1000492/10 "2024-04-19T11:41:43Z")
This is the first time I’ve seen that usage.
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2024, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-annoyed-at-the-term-compute/1000492/11 "2024-04-19T11:48:09Z")
Never heard it, instantly hate it.
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2024, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-annoyed-at-the-term-compute/1000492/12 "2024-04-19T11:56:47Z")
I’ve seen it reasonably often lately, and, well, it does jar the ears, because it’s a usage I wasn’t used to. I wouldn’t say it annoys me; it’ll just take me a minute to get used to it.
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### Author:  [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2024, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-annoyed-at-the-term-compute/1000492/13 "2024-04-19T11:57:26Z")
> [@BigT](#):
>
> “I got a new graphics card for compute, not for graphics.”
>
> “How much compute does your new GPU have?”
Count me with those who have never heard this. Not saying it doesn’t happen, I probably just deal with more tech literate people. It sounds like either nonsense (how much go car have?) or meme talk. Which I guess is a different form of nonsense but at least intentional.
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2024, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-annoyed-at-the-term-compute/1000492/14 "2024-04-19T12:00:36Z")
Here’s wiktionary’s entry of “compute” as a noun:
> [@](#):
>
> ### Noun[[edit](https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=compute&action=edit§ion=8)]
>
> **compute** (_[uncountable](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Glossary#uncountable)_)
>
> 1. (chiefly [cloud computing](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cloud_computing#English), [informal](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Glossary#informal)) [Computational](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/computational#English) processing power. quotations ▼
>
> _The GPU does not have enough on-chip SRAM memory for the parameters, and doesn’t have enough **compute** for the entire model._
As a data scientist, my wife works with cloud computing, so perhaps that’s where I’ve been hearing it mostly, but I’m reasonably sure I’ve heard and seen it elsewhere, too. And it’s not “illiterate” talk. It’s industry jargon.
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### Author:  [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2024, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-annoyed-at-the-term-compute/1000492/15 "2024-04-19T12:02:59Z")
Now I’m in the mood for some stewed fruit in a sugary sauce.
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### Author:  [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2024, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-annoyed-at-the-term-compute/1000492/16 "2024-04-19T12:04:12Z")
> [@pulykamell](#):
>
> And it’s not “illiterate” talk. It’s industry jargon.
That’s just smarter meme talk 😉
Makes sense though since I talk to people about tech stuff but not industry professionals about cloud computing. I had the vibe that this was something the rank and file were saying to one another.
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### Author:  [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2024, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-annoyed-at-the-term-compute/1000492/17 "2024-04-19T12:09:29Z")
> [@Alessan](#):
>
> So “compute” as a noun? And seemingly, a noun that dies not obey the rules of grammar?
In what way do you think it does not obey the rules of grammar? If it’s a noun, it can be used in any syntactic structure that expects a noun.
“Compute” as a noun has a centuries-old history in English. In the 15th and 16th centuries it was used as a synonym for “computer”, and starting from the 16th century it’s been used as a synonym for “computation”, which is pretty close to the usage we’ve been discussing here.
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### Author:  [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2024, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-annoyed-at-the-term-compute/1000492/18 "2024-04-19T12:30:52Z")
> [@Alessan](#):
>
> So “compute” as a noun? And seemingly, a noun that dies not obey the rules of grammar?
>
> I agree. That sounds very stupid.
Nouning weirds language.
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### Author:  [@Al128](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al128)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2024, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-annoyed-at-the-term-compute/1000492/19 "2024-04-19T12:38:13Z")
> [@pulykamell](#):
>
> I’ve seen it reasonably often lately, and, well, it does jar the ears, because it’s a usage I wasn’t used to. I wouldn’t say it annoys me; it’ll just take me a minute to get used to it.
its been flushed to the surface due to the whole AI frenzy …
For AI, you need:
-Data
-Models (=software)
-Compute (=hardware)
e.g. Amazon just spent 300 millión on compute at Nvidia
so its synonym for hardware, and there more specific processing power, particularly GPUs
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2024, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-one-annoyed-at-the-term-compute/1000492/20 "2024-04-19T13:03:14Z")
This use of the word ‘compute’ does not compute.
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