Talk:computer

Long etymology
Is such a lengthy etymology really necessary? --Vladisdead 11:25, 15 Aug 2004 (UTC)
 * Just what I was thinking to myself. All those etymologies should be on the pages of their own languages. &mdash; Hippietrail 12:02, 15 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Still the article is very long!--Darrendeng 10:49, 2 December 2006 (UTC)

This was moved here from the Etymology. ..

Over the years there have been several slightly different meanings to the word computer, and several different words for the thing we now usually call a computer.

For instance "computer" was once commonly used to mean a person employed to do arithmetic calculations, with or without mechanical aids. According to the Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, the word came into use in English in 1646 as a word for a "person who computes" and then by 1897 also for a mechanical calculating machine. During World War II it referred to U.S. and British servicewomen whose job it was to calculate the trajectories of large artillery shells with such machines.

Various simple mechanical devices such as the slide rule and abacus have also been called computers. In some cases they were referred to as "analog computers", as they represented numbers by continuous physical quantities rather than by discrete binary digits. What are now called simply "computers" were once commonly called "digital computers" to distinguish them from these other devices (which are still used in the field of analog signal processing, for example).

In thinking of other words for the computer, it is worth noting that in other languages the word chosen does not always have the same literal meaning as the English Language word. In French for example, the word is ordinateur, which means approximately "organizer", or "sorting machine". The Spanish word is ordenador, with the same meaning, although in some countries they use the anglicism computadora. In Portuguese, it assumes the form computador from the verb computar, which means "to compute", "to calculate". In Italian, computers are usually referred to with the anglicism computer, but there is also the term calcolatore, calculator &mdash; emphasizing its computational uses over logical ones like sorting &mdash; and elaboratore, elaborator. In Persian computer is also called رایانه (rayaneh) a Persian word literally meaning "arranger". In Swedish, a computer is called dator from "data". At least in the 1950s, they were called matematikmaskin ("mathematics machine"). In Finnish computer is called tietokone which means "knowledge machine". The Icelandic language's name for a computer is more poetic, their word tölva, a portmanteau meaning "number prophetess". In Chinese, a computer is called &#30005;&#33041; (diànn&#462;o) or an "electric brain". In English, other words and phrases have been used, such as "data processing machine".

I'm sorry I have to make some major changes concerning Spanish translations for "computer" : "ordenador" is one of the basic differences existing between Spain spanish and Latin American spanish, in Latin America "ordenador" is used only in formal speech, or maybe also, by people who read magazines issued in Spain ; in most Latin American countries (yes, including Central American and Caribbean countries), "computadora" is the usual term ; in ColOmbia (not ColUmbia) and Chile, "computador" is preferred. Andresalvarez 15:07, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

new sense?
Does the first sense include, say, players automatically controlled in a game? As in,
 * I played poker with a friend and 3 computers.

-- 203.171.195.161 18:26, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

Ido language has no official word for computer
The Ido language has no official word for computer, nor are any of the translations listed more accepted than the others. This article as it stands is highly misleading as it makes it appear that Ido has three offical synonyms for computer, when in fact it has no word for computer. Ido should be removed from the list of translations.

Idojc (talk) 12:12, 24 July 2021 (UTC)

Olde Engliſhe computer
In device section ſtated, that "spearctelle" is Old Engliſhe word for computer. I want to ſee handwrit about this magical device. Nið (talk) 04:08, 29 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Reverted. We don't treat modern coinages as real Old English. Chuck Entz (talk) 05:33, 29 October 2022 (UTC)