Talk:computress

Word never widely adopted

People who worked on computations before electronic computers existed were called "computers" regardless of sex. As far as I can tell, the word "computress" is not merely obsolete, but was never widely adopted (except as a character in the cartoon "Dexter's Laboratory"[1]). Geoffrey.landis (talk) 13:59, 16 October 2022 (UTC)

@Geoffrey.landis: It doesn't matter if words don't get widely adopted, we still document them here if they meet WT:CFI. The entry has some quotations from 1962, 1963 and 1984. Perhaps it should be marked as uncommon. – Jberkel 14:23, 16 October 2022 (UTC)

Also, there's a spike in use around 1960, just the moment when electronic computers became more common, so there was a need to distinguish the two concepts. – Jberkel 15:14, 16 October 2022 (UTC)