# Why is it called a Computer ? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 17, 2006, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-called-a-computer/376797 "2006-10-17T16:59:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2006, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-called-a-computer/376797/1 "2006-10-17T16:59:51Z")
Why? Why not a calculator or abacus or any of many other things? Who first named these machines Computers? Not that it bothers me, but Googling “History of Computers” is, well, a bit…vague. Anyone know the Straight Dope? Cartooniverse ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2006, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-called-a-computer/376797/2 "2006-10-17T17:03:13Z")
A computer, originally, was a person whose job it was to perform long and tedious computations. They assisted scientists and mathemeticians in their work. So when they started inventing big hulking machines which were designed to perform long and tedious computations, they called them computers, after the people they were putting out of a job. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2006, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-called-a-computer/376797/3 "2006-10-17T19:41:26Z")
Following up **friedo** … The earliest non-human computers were usually called “mechanical computers”. They actually used relays. With tubes they began to be called “electronic computers”. Note that there were two flavors: analog and digital computers. Since the latter became overwhelming famous, the phrase “electronic digital computer” got shortened to just “computer”. But there were still some people who considered the analog/digital distinction a major issue well into the 1970s (at least). I know some textbook authors that received nasty letters insisting that the full term “digital computer” should have been used throughout the text. So it was (and is) a very broad term whose number 1 usage is the one thing most people think of nowadays. Note that the earliest things called computers were not full blown Turing machine equivalents. E.g., the devices controlling the more sophisticated anti-aircraft and naval guns in late WWII were (analog) computers. Hardly comparable to an abacus or a desktop mechanical calculator. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2006, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-called-a-computer/376797/4 "2006-10-17T19:43:24Z")
> [@](#): > > Computer used for person, 1646; mechanical calculating machine, 1897; and electronic machine, 1946 or 1941. In the modern meaning, “programmable digital electronic computer” is from 1945 > **[Search 'computer' on etymonline](https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=computer)** > > Search results for 'computer' on etymonline ---
**Author:** ![Dingbang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac8455/32.png) [@Dingbang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dingbang)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2006, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-called-a-computer/376797/5 "2006-10-17T19:50:39Z")
Interesting side note: I remember seeing a rerun of the tv show “Maude” from the 1970s when she was all agog about receiving a “hand computer” as a Christmas gift. It was a calculator, about the size of a paperback book. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2006, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-called-a-computer/376797/6 "2006-10-17T20:47:53Z")
I’ve being reading many early sixties fiction stories and they used numerous terms for them other then computer. I know if I ever run accros a person that can be said to bring our modern conception of computer into general public usage, I plan on speaking up. I found out the Andre Norton died in 2005 at the age of 93. Her writings are available on the Project Gutenberg site for free with other writers of science fiction from the years in which modern terms were born. I must say tha that some writers from the early 1900’s used way to much about rays and ether doing anything you can imagine. They also used elemental rays that they thought each planet alone must give off to the ether. Considering that a certain athur wrote many artlicles with his space cadets series, I’ll bet he’s the reason we had to hear our parents say stuff about being a space cadet. Another athur wrote space ranger serials so he likely helped ingrain space ranger into our parents vocabulary. I was reading adventure books from 1900 before that and ran across terms for new items that are now common and called different things in different countries. I could see how the used term could change to what it is called in England and here in the USA, and add in Australia too. Some of these writers have hit on the future hundred years exactly and others are a laugh that have people using records to record conversations hundreds of years from now, and vacuum tubes for every thing also. ---
**Author:** ![spingears](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@spingears](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spingears)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2006, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-called-a-computer/376797/7 "2006-10-17T21:27:54Z")
[QUOTE=ftg] Following up **friedo** … CORRECTION PLEASE! The earliest non-human computers were usually called “mechanical computers”. They actually used relays. With tubes they began to be called “electronic computers”. [/QUOTE] The earliest non-human computers were usually called “mechanical computers”. They actually used GEARS, Levers, Cranks, etc., hand operated, and they grew from simple affairs to some extremely complex mechanical marvels, [**The Curta Hand Held Pocket Computer**](http://www.syssrc.com/html/museum/html/curta.html)Is a case in point. Holerith cards were a form of computer for totally manual use. IBM originally mechanized their use to perform operations previously done by hand. See the Jacquard loom which used punched cards to weave patterns in cloth. The list goes on and on ad infinitum. Vacuum tube, relays etc. are “Johnny come lateleys.” ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2006, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-called-a-computer/376797/8 "2006-10-17T22:32:30Z")
[QUOTE=spingears] [**The Curta Hand Held Pocket Computer**](http://www.syssrc.com/html/museum/html/curta.html)Is a case in point. [/QUOTE] Your link goes to a page that calls it, properly, a “Curta Hand-Held _Calculator_.” Not a computer. Calculators and computers are not the same things. Hollerith card machines and the punch cards for Jacquard looms are precursors to the computer, but not truly computers in and of themselves. Although there is no one absolute dividing line for when “computers” started, just as there is no one absolute dividing line for when “science fiction” started, I think you have to make the argument that until electro-mechanical systems were introduced no true computers existed as we understand the term today. **Harmonious Discord** , the television show, [Tom Corbett, Space Cadet](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042156/), is the popular source of the term. Although Heinlein did publish a juvenile by that name earlier, there was also [another source](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Corbett,_Space_Cadet): > [@](#): > > Joseph Lawrence Greene of Grosset & Dunlap developed Tom Corbett, Space Cadet, inspired by the Robert A. Heinlein novel Space Cadet (1948) but based also on his own prior work: Greene had originally submitted a radio script for “Tom Ranger” and the “Space Cadets” on January 16, 1946, but it remained unperformed when Heinlein’s novel was published. > > October 2, 1950 - June 25, 1955 Live action serial. The stories initially closely followed the scripts written for an unpublished newspaper comic strip, Tom Ranger, Space Cadet, by Joseph Greene from 1949. Space Ranger has two television sources: the 1954 series, [“Rocky Jones, Space Ranger”](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046639/) and the earlier [“Captain Video and His Video Rangers”](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041014/), which were conflated in the public’s mind. Andre Norton did a series called _Star Rangers_, which were about space rangers, but that’s probably not the source of the term. What this all has to do with computers baffles me. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2006, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-called-a-computer/376797/9 "2006-10-18T00:26:23Z")
If you read Feynman’s memoirs or his letters, you’ll see that he spend a lot of his time at Los Alamos setting up problem for his computers - a set of ladies who did the calculation with mechanical calculators. None of the stuff I’ve read goes into detail, but I get the impression that it involved him parallelizing the calculations in some way to make them efficient. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2006, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-called-a-computer/376797/10 "2006-10-18T01:13:37Z")
Back when I took engineering at the University of Waterloo, in the early 70s ,the main building housed The Computer. Waterloo was at the cutting edge with their Watfor language and us students were quite priveledged with the access. We developed our own programs on typewriters that punched holes in cards that we stacked up maybe inches thick, and presented them to the operator at one of several terminals to receive reams of printouts displaying our program and the results. To me and my fellow classmates it was just a fantastic calculator. Remember in 1969 we were still using sliderules. In 1970 Hewlitt Packard sold one of my class mates a hand held calculator for over $100.00. But that is really what a computer did in those days. Sophisticcated calculations. ie , compute. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2006, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-called-a-computer/376797/11 "2006-10-18T01:25:28Z")
The etymology of the word “compute” appears to be from the latin, where _computare_ = to count or sum up. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2006, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-called-a-computer/376797/12 "2006-10-18T02:55:30Z")
> [@spingears](#): > > Originally Posted by ftg > Following up friedo… CORRECTION PLEASE! > The earliest non-human computers were usually called “mechanical computers”. They actually used relays. With tubes they began to be called “electronic computers”. **spingears**. I’m not aware that **CORRECTION PLEASE** was posted by anyone prior to you **adding** it to your post. If you can’t learn the rules around here, then maybe you need to read more and post less. I know you don’t do it deliberately, but you just don’t seem to understand how things work around here. If you have a problem with something that someone posted, then alert a mod, or just quote that part and discuss it. But, for Og’s sake, quit muddling things together here. This is an ongoing problem, and part of a pattern that I"ve warned you about before. If things don’t get better, perhaps we’ll have to have a serious talk. Take my warning to heart. **samclem** GQ moderator ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2006, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-called-a-computer/376797/13 "2006-10-18T03:36:23Z")
Exapno Mapcase - You listed the sources I was thinking of for space cadet. Heinlein’s book and the Tom Corbet Space Cadet series. Andre Norton was one of the sources for Space Rangers I was considering helped it’s general usage. Electronic Computers with tubes are just starting to be used in these early ficitions and I wanted to point out that fiction from that period gives a good feel for how the term computer in it’s modern context, sort of fell into place after some variances. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2006, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-called-a-computer/376797/14 "2006-10-18T06:18:21Z")
Because it computes, duh! (unless it happens to be Lost in Space) ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2006, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-called-a-computer/376797/15 "2006-10-18T07:11:37Z")
[QUOTE=The Flying Dutchman] But that is really what a computer did in those days. Sophisticcated calculations. ie , compute. [/QUOTE] The HP35 went for about $350 US in 1970 or so. But computers did far more than calculate then. Samuel’s checkers playing program was started in 1959. There was active AI work in the early '60s (and even some in the '50s.) There were time sharing systems in the mid-60s. Lisp and Snobol (a string processing language) had been around for ages then. And when I played Spacewar on the PDP-1 in 1971, it had been up for ages. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2006, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-called-a-computer/376797/16 "2006-10-18T07:14:19Z")
[QUOTE=Harmonious Discord] Exapno Mapcase - You listed the sources I was thinking of for space cadet. Heinlein’s book and the Tom Corbet Space Cadet series. Andre Norton was one of the sources for Space Rangers I was considering helped it’s general usage. [/QUOTE] While I don’t remember an earlier reference for Space Cadet and Space Ranger, Edmond Hamilton was writing about the Interstellar Patrol in 1928. (I don’t believe there were kids involved - please don’t make me read them again!) This predates Doc Smith’s Galactic Patrol, and Malcolm Jameson’s Space Patrol which ran in Astounding during WW II. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2006, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-called-a-computer/376797/17 "2006-10-18T10:47:33Z")
According to Fox + James ‘The Complete Chess Addict’, a machine was invented in 1890 to play the ending of King + Rook v King using pulleys, weights and wires according to a simple algorithm. (It’s currently in the Polytechnic Museum in Madrid.) I think it was called an automaton, but have no decent evidence for that. > **[Torres y Quevedo's rook endgame automaton](https://en.chessbase.com/post/torres-y-quevedo-s-rook-endgame-automaton)** > > The very first machine that could play chess, genuinely calculate and execute moves, was a digital electronic computer, right? Wrong! It was a mechanical contraption built at the beginning of the 20th century by a Spanish engineer, who also designed... ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2006, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-called-a-computer/376797/18 "2006-10-18T14:43:07Z")
[QUOTE=Voyager] While I don’t remember an earlier reference for Space Cadet and Space Ranger, Edmond Hamilton was writing about the Interstellar Patrol in 1928. (I don’t believe there were kids involved - please don’t make me read them again!) This predates Doc Smith’s Galactic Patrol, and Malcolm Jameson’s Space Patrol which ran in Astounding during WW II. [/QUOTE] I’ve read all of his Interstellar Patrol stories I could get hold of. No kids in the role of main character. Childern rarely as a minor role in the story, and of little consequence. ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2006, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-called-a-computer/376797/19 "2006-10-18T19:03:11Z")
[QUOTE=Voyager] If you read Feynman’s memoirs or his letters, you’ll see that he spend a lot of his time at Los Alamos setting up problem for his computers - a set of ladies who did the calculation with mechanical calculators. None of the stuff I’ve read goes into detail, but I get the impression that it involved him parallelizing the calculations in some way to make them efficient. [/QUOTE] Turing also uses “computer” in that sense in “On Computable Numbers…”. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2006, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-called-a-computer/376797/20 "2006-10-18T20:12:57Z")
[QUOTE=ftg] The earliest non-human computers were usually called “mechanical computers”. They actually used relays. With tubes they began to be called “electronic computers”. Note that there were two flavors: analog and digital computers. Since the latter became overwhelming famous, the phrase “electronic digital computer” got shortened to just “computer”. But there were still some people who considered the analog/digital distinction a major issue well into the 1970s (at least). I know some textbook authors that received nasty letters insisting that the full term “digital computer” should have been used throughout the text. So it was (and is) a very broad term whose number 1 usage is the one thing most people think of nowadays. [/QUOTE] In addition to shortening “electronic digital computer” to just “computer”, many people these days conflate “electronic” and “digital”. For example, I once had a heated discussion with an electronic engineer about whether or not an abacus is digital (it is). [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-called-a-computer/376797.md?page=2)