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> The original meaning of the word computer was a person who calculates.

Was that ever so?

According to Google Ngrams, "computer" was not really a term until, predictably, around 1950, even though the verb "compute" has been in use throughout history (it comes from the Latin "computare", apparently).

That tells me "computer" was never a person, always a machine.

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=compute%2Ccomp...






Yes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_(occupation)

The first reference in the Wikipedia article is to the original definition in the Oxford English Dictionary. Dating from 1613, it refers to a person.


The first “computers” were people, who computed. And the term was used to mean as much until very recently.

> From 1953 to 1958, Johnson worked as a computer,[23] analyzing topics such as gust alleviation for aircraft.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katherine_Johnson





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