Also -or. [f. COMPUTE v. + -ER1.] One who computes: a calculator, reckoner; spec. a person employed to make calculations in an observatory, in surveying, etc.; a device for making calculations.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., VI. vi. 289. The Calenders of these computer.
1704. Swift, T. Tub, vii. A very skilful computer.
1744. Walpole, Lett. H. Mann, 18 June. Told by some nice computors of national glory.
1822. Babbage, Application of Machinery to the Purpose of Calculating & Printing Mathematical Tables, 5. I have contrived means by which the machines themselves shall take from several boxes containing type, the numbers which they calculate, and place them side by side; thus becoming at the same time a substitute for the compositor and the computer: by which means all error in copying as well as in printing is removed.
1855. Brewster, Newton, II. xviii. 162. To pay the expenses of a computer for reducing his observations.
1918. Electrical World, 24 Aug., 379/2. It is so simple, the maker claims, that any one who can read numbers can use this computer.
