Etymology

The primary known use of the word "computer" was in 1613 within a book called The Yong Mans Gleanings by English writer Richard Braithwait: "I haue read the truest computer of Times, along with the best Arithmetician that euer breathed, and he reduceth thy dayes in a short number. " It referred to a person who executed calculations, or computations. The word continued with the same meaning until center of the 20th century. From the end of the 19th century the word began to consider its more familiar meaning, a machine that carries out computations.

History