Oddbean new post about login | logout This is an honest question and I have a feeling someone will give me a solid answer. When did the word “compute” switch from a verb (ex: the brain computes sensory information) to a noun (ex: this new chip has much greater compute)? #asknostr
It didn’t. It was always both.
Honestly? I didn’t know that. Wow
Yeah. Compute was a term for calculation verb and noun far earlier than a term for computers.
That’s wild. I thought the first “computers” were people in a room writing stuff on paper but I didn’t know something could have “compute” or do “compute” or whatever
That’s what’s great about here, I don’t feel like the oddball because I don’t know a random thing , I’d have been filleted on X for not knowing the latest slang term for instance
Earliest evidence of compute as noun is from 1483
I’d love to read that, whatever it is - I enjoy etymological stuff like this
Provided there’s a translation if it’s in Dutch
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pilgrimage_of_the_Soul
Nice! I’ll check it out
Didn’t find the word compute in that wiki
I have heard the word "spend" used the same way in recent years. I figured it's just some kind of corporate newspeak.
Lots of nouns are verbs now Like “adulting” for instance
I think some are made up 😆 The nature of English language is to simplify and take shortcuts.
I’m making #SIMPING into a thing Let it be
Definitely it’s funny how some words are in style at a particular time, like when Collusion was everywhere awhile ago, it was used over 30 times in House of Cards
I've noticed that each generation makes up new words or gives new meanings to old words. Like "lit", as in "this party is lit" or that's "fire." And words can take opposite meanings of what they usually mean, e.g. "bad" as Michael Jackson sang it meant "awesome" or "cool." Or something can be 💩 (bad) or be "the 💩" (good). 😄