Computers have become a large part of the modern-day world, this is why I decided to look up the word computer in the Oxford English Dictionary and the Thorndike-Barnhart Student Dictionary and compare the two definitions given.
             According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first meaning of the word computer was used in 1646. At that time, computer meant simply " one who computes." The following quote found in the OED and made by Brewster in 1855 uses this meaning, "To pay the expenses of a computer for reducing his observation." The second meaning of computer was introduced in 1897. Computer's new 19th century meaning was "a calculating machine." A quote made in a 1964 publication titled Electronic Computers by F.L. Westwater uses this 19th-century-born meaning is "The popular idea of a computer as an electronic 'brain' is not entirely apt Basically, a computer is merely a calculating machine,... with the difference that the speed of a calculation has been enormously increased." Computer-aided is a word combination that the OED offers as an addition to the word computer. The meaning of computer aided is, "performed with the aid of a computer."
             In the Thorndike-Barnhart Student Dictionary, the first meaning of computer is "an electronic machine that can store, recall, or process information." The second meaning listed in this dictionary is "person skilled or trained in computing." The Thorndike-Barnhart dictionary does leave out the word combination, computer-aided, that the OED included in its definition.
             The differences between the definitions found in the OED and the definitions found in the Thorndike-Barnhart Student Dictionary are very limited. The Thorndike-Barnhart dictionary simply restates the definition of computer found in the OED. The only major differences are the OED references quotes to help clarify the meaning and the OED adds an additional word combination to the word computer.
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