People used to be Computers… True fact!!!

Although nowadays we know a computer as the beautiful piece of hardware we sit on clicking and typing on all day everyday, the term ‘Computer’ was originally used as a job title.

The earliest documented use of the word ‘Computer’ is from 1613 from a book by Richard Braithwait who was an English poet (Born 1588 – died 4 May 1673). In his book he wrote

“I have read the truest computer of times, and the best arithmetician that breathed, and he reduceth thy dayes into a short number”

He was talking about a person/people. Back in the old school days a ‘Computer’ was a person that did ‘arithmetic’. People with the job title of ‘Computer’ would literally sit there doing math and only math all day, sometimes using basic “machines” like Abacus’ or other mathematical instruments to assist them with the arithmetic. I guess if you were an accounting firm you needed to make sure all the numbers were correct so they would hire a Computer to do so.

Not until the 1800’s did the term evolve to be associated with a devices (eg type writer) and so on until what we know computers as today.