News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Italian government seeks to penalize the use of English w... by ithkuil on Monday April 03, 2023 @02:22AM (#35419261)
Ironically that's exactly what "computer" means.

The root "comput-" comes from latin "computo" while "calcolatore" comes from the latin "calculo" which is a rough latin synonym of "computo". The form "comput-" transformed in Italian into "cont-" like in "conto" (English count), "contante" (cash) etc.

So perhaps "contatore" (counter) instead of "computer" would make more etymological sense.

Re:Italian government seeks to penalize the use of English w... by fathyb on Monday April 03, 2023 @02:52AM (#35419488)
We had this debate in France in 1955. We use the word "ordinateur" for "computer", which comes from the latin "ordinator" which means something that order things, it shares the same root as the word "order".

It was picked over the word "calculateur" which is the French equivalent of "calculatore" after IBM France shared a letter wondering if "calculateur" was too restrictive and didn't properly express the machine capabilities. To which Jacques Perret answered "why not ordinateur?"

https://journals.openedition.org/bibnum/534

Re:Italian government seeks to penalize the use of English w... by Fire-Dragon-DoL on Monday April 03, 2023 @02:58AM (#35419544)
It's kinda funny picturing either of those words as we play Dark Souls (videogame) on these devices. Yes of course that's "all math", still!
Re:Italian government seeks to penalize the use of English w... by Fire-Dragon-DoL on Monday April 03, 2023 @02:54AM (#35419506)
I'm well aware and I find it somewhat amusing.

The problem is the interpretation people give to the word. If I say computer, people think of something with keyboard + mouse and a screen, or maybe a laptop (funny enough, they will not think of their phone).

If I say "calcolatore", we envision one of those devices to do math operations, used in school (are those still a thing?)

Re:Italian government seeks to penalize the use of English w... by kome on Monday April 03, 2023 @03:20AM (#35419720)
that's a calcolatrice, calcolatore is a computer :)
Re:Italian government seeks to penalize the use of English w... by Fire-Dragon-DoL on Monday April 03, 2023 @03:39AM (#35419870)
I'm aware, but still in the small circle of people I asked to, they all envisioned that over a computer, lol
Re:Italian government seeks to penalize the use of English w... by mnw21cam on Monday April 03, 2023 @04:20AM (#35420231)
Only a short time ago, the word "computer" meant a person (who calculates things as a job).
Re:Italian government seeks to penalize the use of English w... by sharikous on Monday April 03, 2023 @04:32AM (#35420311)
I am always amused by those kinds of etymologies where a word "gets back" to the language it came from or its more direct heir (Italian for Latin) after living in a different language.

In Hebrew we have "tachless" that comes from yiddish "tachless", that comes from Hebrew "tachlit" but now tachless and tachlit have different meanings and different grammar roles

Re:Italian government seeks to penalize the use of English w... by acadapter on Monday April 03, 2023 @07:11AM (#35421567)
This was done in Slovenia (računalnik)