Computer
nounAn electronic device that stores and processes data and runs programs.
How to spell computer
8 letters · 3 syllables
How to pronounce computer
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does computer mean?
- nounAn electronic device that stores and processes data and runs programs.
Computer in a sentence
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She saved the report on her computer before leaving the office.
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The old computer took several minutes to start up each morning.
Where does computer come from?
Language of origin: Latin
The word computer traces back to the Latin verb computare, meaning 'to reckon together' or 'to calculate', formed from com- 'together' and putare 'to reckon, think, or prune'. English first used 'computer' in the early 1600s to describe a person whose job was performing calculations, a human role that survived in scientific and astronomical work for centuries. Only in the mid twentieth century did the word shift decisively to the electronic machine we now mean, as wartime calculating engines took over the human computers' duties. The same putare root surfaces in everyday relatives such as 'dispute', 'reputation' and 'compute' itself, all built on the idea of reckoning or weighing things up. The spelling is phonetically regular, with the only mild snag being the unstressed -er ending that some writers briefly second-guess against -or.
How the word is built
- com- (together)
- put (from putare: to reckon, calculate)
- -er (agent noun: one that does)
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