From owner-cse584-sp07-list@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU Mon Feb 19 13:45:55 2007 Received: from ares.cse.buffalo.edu (ares.cse.Buffalo.EDU [128.205.32.79]) by castor.cse.Buffalo.EDU (8.13.6/8.12.10) with ESMTP id l1JIjtxB002401 for ; Mon, 19 Feb 2007 13:45:55 -0500 (EST) Received: from front3.acsu.buffalo.edu (upfront.acsu.buffalo.edu [128.205.4.140]) by ares.cse.buffalo.edu (8.13.6/8.13.6) with SMTP id l1JIjlDw016580 for ; Mon, 19 Feb 2007 13:45:47 -0500 (EST) Received: (qmail 23803 invoked from network); 19 Feb 2007 18:45:47 -0000 Received: from mailscan3.acsu.buffalo.edu (128.205.6.135) by front3.acsu.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 19 Feb 2007 18:45:47 -0000 Received: (qmail 18672 invoked from network); 19 Feb 2007 18:45:46 -0000 Received: from deliverance.acsu.buffalo.edu (128.205.7.57) by front2.acsu.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 19 Feb 2007 18:45:46 -0000 Received: (qmail 6415 invoked from network); 19 Feb 2007 18:45:27 -0000 Received: from listserv.buffalo.edu (128.205.7.35) by deliverance.acsu.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 19 Feb 2007 18:45:27 -0000 Received: by LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (LISTSERV-TCP/IP release 14.5) with spool id 3420094 for CSE584-SP07-LIST@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU; Mon, 19 Feb 2007 13:45:27 -0500 Delivered-To: cse584-sp07-list@listserv.buffalo.edu Received: (qmail 28393 invoked from network); 19 Feb 2007 18:45:20 -0000 Received: from mailscan1.acsu.buffalo.edu (128.205.6.133) by listserv.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 19 Feb 2007 18:45:20 -0000 Received: (qmail 18477 invoked from network); 19 Feb 2007 18:45:19 -0000 Received: from castor.cse.buffalo.edu (128.205.32.14) by smtp1.acsu.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 19 Feb 2007 18:45:19 -0000 Received: from castor.cse.Buffalo.EDU (rapaport@localhost [127.0.0.1]) by castor.cse.Buffalo.EDU (8.13.6/8.12.10) with ESMTP id l1JIjJ0A002377 for ; Mon, 19 Feb 2007 13:45:19 -0500 (EST) Received: (from rapaport@localhost) by castor.cse.Buffalo.EDU (8.13.6/8.12.9/Submit) id l1JIjJPn002376 for cse584-sp07-list@listserv.buffalo.edu; Mon, 19 Feb 2007 13:45:19 -0500 (EST) X-UB-Relay: (castor.cse.buffalo.edu) X-PM-EL-Spam-Prob: : 7% Message-ID: <200702191845.l1JIjJPn002376@castor.cse.Buffalo.EDU> Date: Mon, 19 Feb 2007 13:45:19 -0500 Reply-To: "William J. Rapaport" Sender: "Philosophy of Computer Science, Spring 2007" From: "William J. Rapaport" Subject: UPDATED ETYMOLOGY OF "COMPUTE" To: CSE584-SP07-LIST@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU Precedence: list List-Help: , List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Owner: List-Archive: X-UB-Relay: (castor.cse.buffalo.edu) X-DCC-Buffalo.EDU-Metrics: castor.cse.Buffalo.EDU 1029; Body=0 Fuz1=0 Fuz2=0 X-Spam-Status: No, score=-2.0 required=5.0 tests=AWL,BAYES_00,SUBJ_ALL_CAPS autolearn=no version=3.1.7 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.1.7 (2006-10-05) on ares.cse.buffalo.edu X-Virus-Scanned: ClamAV 0.88.6/2607/Mon Feb 19 12:56:34 2007 on ares.cse.buffalo.edu X-Virus-Status: Clean Status: R Content-Length: 2367 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Subject: UPDATED ETYMOLOGY OF "COMPUTE" ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ======================================================================== Note: If you've read this before and just want to see the update, look for the CAPITALIZED TEXT ======================================================================== You might find the following information interesting. Whether it's philosophically relevant is another matter! "compute" comes from the Latin word /computare/, meaning "arithmetic accounting, reckoning". Clearly, its meaning has been extended to include non-numerical "reckoning". /computare/ itself comes from Latin /com/, meaning "with" and Latin /putare/, meaning "to settle, clear up, reckon". So, in ancient Rome at least, to "compute" seems to have meant, more or less, something like "to settle things together" or maybe "to reckon with (something)". The English word "reckon" originally meant "to count, to calculate, to figure". ("RECKON" IS FROM AN INDO-EUROPEAN ROOT 'REK' = TO REACH?; TO TELL, TO NARRATE, TO SAY.) The origins of "count", "calculate" and "figure", in turn, are of interest: "count" also came from /computare/ AND ORIGINALLY MEANT TO ENUMERATE, TO RECITE A LIST (AND "RECITE" IS PROBABLY RELATED TO "RECKON"; SEE ABOVE) "calculate" came from Latin /calculus/, meaning (not the contents of MTH 141, but) "pebble" (!), since counting was done with pebbles originally! The verb "to figure" means "to use figures to reckon", where the noun "figure" seems originally to have meant "numerical symbol" (the earliest citation for "figure" in the OED is from 1225, where it means "numerical symbol"). A citation from 1250 has the meaning "embodied (human) form", and a citation from 1300 has the more general meaning of "shape". (This conversion of the noun "figure" to a verb is an example of what the computer scientist Edsgar Dijkstra meant when he said, "in English, any noun can be verbed" :-) To see the OED online, go to from any UB machine. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Bottom line: to "compute" seems to have originally meant something very closely related to our modern notion of "symbol [i.e., shape] manipulation".