Computers are everywhere nowadays, woven so deeply into our lives that they seem inseparable. The journey of this technology began about 70 years ago.
Since the 1960s, computers have spread across the globe. By the 1980s, they were not only in offices but also in some homes. Today, we find these in cars, homes, TVs, and even rovers exploring Mars. Smartphones are essentially pocket-sized. In nearly any technological field, professionals work directly or indirectly with some form of it. But have you ever wondered who coined the term?
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word dates back centuries. Interestingly, its earliest recorded usage wasn’t for a machine but a person. English author Richard Braithwaite used it in his book The Young Man’s Gleanings to describe a human who calculated quickly and accurately—someone adept at mathematics and complex calculations. These human computers, often women, were employed in various fields to perform calculations. Many women worked as human computers at institutions like Harvard, as they were paid less and frequently employed in mathematical roles. In fact, until 1943, most human computers were women.
The Computer as a Machine
The transition from human to machine occurred over time. In 1822, Charles Babbage developed early mechanical computers, such as the Difference Engine and the Analytical Engine, marking the birth of computing machines. By 1946, with the creation of the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC), the term Its took on its modern meaning as a digital programmable machine.
The Origins of the Word
The word traces back to the Latin putare, meaning “to think” or “to arrange.” In the ancient poem Georgics by Virgil, putare is used in the context of pruning and arranging shrubs. Roman playwright Publius Terence famously penned the Latin phrase Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto (“I am human, and I think nothing human is alien to me”), highlighting puto as a term for thought and calculation.
The modern interpretation of these aligns with counting, measuring, and calculating. The term appears in Pliny’s Natural History, where it was used to describe accurate measurements of Asia’s size.
Computing in British History
In British history, the word has been in use for centuries. By 1660, Samuel Pepys referred to computing wages, and the term computer referred to someone skilled in arithmetic. In 1731, The Edinburgh Weekly Journal advised young wives to compute their husbands’ incomes, underlining the term’s association with personal calculations.
The Twentieth-Century Evolution
Between 1939 and 1942, the Atanasoff-Berry Computer was developed at Iowa State University. Inventor John Atanasoff used to describe both the machine and the process of computation. He noted that it took him eight hours to solve a set of equations as an “expert computer,” referring to his calculation skills. Additionally, in 1922, the New York Times used terms like target this and battery its to describe military devices for calculating firing trajectories. Some sources also indicate that by 1869, computer mechanic appeared in publications, hinting at the evolving terminology.