4 ms·
'Compute(er)' is a French word
by cmh89 4y ago
'Compute(er)' is a French word
- G3rn0ti 4y agoIronically, the French „Académie française“ banned the term „computer“ and established „l‘ordinateur“ instead to keep the language pure. :)
- bryanlarsen 4y agoI had a comment written up to say the same thing, but then I found this: https://blogs.transparent.com/french/the-origin-of-lordinateur-computers-in-french/ https://blogs.transparent.com/french/the-origin-of-lordinate... Turns out that ordinateur wasn't chosen for French purity but because IBM wanted a fancy word to sell their fancy machine by.
- seszett 4y agoThe reason "ordinateur" is used in French, is that IBM coined that word because "calculateur" (the regular modern French translation of "computer") sounded too mundane. "Ordinateur" suggests sorting, rather than just making simple calculations. It has nothing at all with "keeping the language pure" (which seems kind of a meme in the English speaking world, but really couldn't be further from truth) and it was originally trademarked by IBM, but quickly became a generic word.
- G3rn0ti 4y agoOk, sorry, I did not fact check my comment. I just remembered my French teacher from school making fun about L‘Académie with regard to this and other weird French terms like „baladeur“ instead of Walkman (tm).
- anthk 4y agoWe Spaniards use ordenador and before that we used "computadora". The Spanish speakers across the pond use "computadora" or "computador". To us computador make us think on something like an old ancient device from the 60-70's.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- bryanlarsen 4y agoCompter is a verb in french, the noun would be comptoir, I believe. But they use ordinateur for computer, because IBM wanted a fancier word to better sell their fancy machine. https://blogs.transparent.com/french/the-origin-of-lordinateur-computers-in-french/ https://blogs.transparent.com/french/the-origin-of-lordinate...