"Aha--computer doesn't have more than one meaning"

Computer used to mean (see the OED): "One who computes; a calculator, reckoner; spec. a person employed to make calculations in an observatory, in surveying, etc.".
Quote:
Now the method of growing wise, learned, and sublime, having become so regular an affair, and so established in all its forms; the number of writings must needs have increased accordingly, and to a pitch that has made it of absolute necessity for them to interfere continually with each other. Besides, it is reckoned, that there is not at this present a sufficient quantity of new matter left in nature, to furnish and adorn any one particular subject, to the extent of a volume. This I am told by a very skilful computer, who has given a full demonstration of it from rules of arithmetic. J. Swift, Tale of a Tub.


Ceci n'est pas un seing.