computer

Etymology

From compute + -er. Doublet of cantore, counter, and kontor. Sense 1 first attested in 1613 by the poet Richard Brathwait. Sense 2 first attested in 1897 in the Engineering magazine.

noun

1. (now rare, chiefly historical) A person employed to perform computations; one who computes.
   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. 1613, Richard Brathwait, The Yong Mans Gleanings, page 1
   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. 1674, “To the Guardian-Angel”, in Reflexions upon the Devotions of the Roman Church, London: Richard Royston, page 419
   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. 1927, J. B. S. Haldane, Possible Worlds and Other Essays, London: Chatto & Windus, page 173
   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. 2003, Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything, BCA, page 116
   1. (by restriction, chiefly historical) A male computer, where the female computer is called a computress.
2. 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.
   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

1. (intransitive) To use a computer.
   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? 31 December 1995, Roxanne Coyle, “B'days”, in bit.listserv.words-l (Usenet)
   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, […] 2004, The World According to Mimi Smartypants, London: HarperCollinsEntertainment, page 36
   I'm constantly computering, schlepping, stressing, and hauling ass like the rest of us. We are New Yorkers. 16 May 2017, 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
   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. 20 December 2019, “Finding Mr. Right”, in Harley Quinn, season 1, episode 4, spoken by Harley Quinn (Kaley Cuoco)
2. (transitive) To send via computer.
   They had immediately computered the description out to the scores of law enforcement agencies in Southern California. 1988, Marcel Montecino, The Crosskiller, New York, N.Y.: Arbor House; William Morrow, page 351
   '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.' 2001, Will Kingdom, Mean Spirit, London[…]: Bantam Press, page 428
3. (transitive) To transfer onto a computer; to computerize.
   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. 20 March 1972, 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
   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. 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, page 336
   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. 1988, Shimon Applebaum, “Foreward”, in Judaea in Hellenistic and Roman Times, Leiden[…]: E. J. Brill, unnumbered page
   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. 21 November 2010, Burr, “MFW has been milked dry”, in misc.fitness.weights (Usenet)