GRAPH-WIDE SEARCH
MEASURE THE GRAPH ↗NOT JUST A DICTIONARY LOOKUP
6 EVIDENCE COLLECTIONSSEARCH
THE GRAPH.
Find a modern word—or search sideways through reconstructed roots, historical forms, meanings, languages, scholars, sources, claims, disputes, and witnesses.
013
MODERN ENTRY POINTS
WORD DOSSIERS
verbexact headword
calculate
To determine mathematically or estimate, borrowed from a Latin family built around counting with pebbles.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗noundossier summary
calculator
A person or device that calculates, inherited from a medieval human-reckoner word and the Latin counting-pebble family.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗verb · noun · adjectivehistorical form
collect
To bring together, accumulate, infer, or receive; from Latin colligere, literally built with a together-prefix and legere.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗023
ATTESTED / RECONSTRUCTED / BOUNDARY
HISTORICAL FORMS
●
Present-Day English / Indo-European
calculate
to compute, determine, estimate, or plan
- DATE
- 1542–today
- MATCH
- exact historical form
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Present-Day English / Indo-European
calculator
one who calculates; later especially a calculating machine or electronic device
- DATE
- 14th century–today
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Middle English / Indo-European
collecten
to accumulate, infer, calculate
- DATE
- Middle English
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 1
034
WHERE INTERPRETATION IS TESTED
CLAIMS & DISPUTES
SCHOLARLY DISPUTES / 3
openproposedexact word
Is calculus securely a diminutive of calx “limestone”?
Not securely. The traditional analysis is morphologically and semantically irregular; an alternative links Latin calculus and Greek stone words through a possible shared substrate source.
resolvedestablishedexact word
Were Roman calculations literally made with stones?
Latin calculus did name a pebble used on a counting board, and the computation sense developed from that practice.
resolvedestablishedposition text
Do the displayed citations measure how often speakers used love versus hate?
No. They are a selected historical-dictionary evidence surface, not a balanced corpus or a sample of medieval speech.
CONTRARIAN TRUTHS / 1
RANK 5GRADE Aexact ranked word
Calculation began with a pebble in the hand.
Latin calculus was a small stone used for reckoning before calculation became abstract.
041
BOOKS / DICTIONARIES / ARTICLES / DATABASES
SOURCES
052
FIRST USES & HISTORICAL OBJECTS
ATTESTATION WITNESSES
DIRECTLY INSPECTEDprinted book
The CHIMES entry in John Harris’s Lexicon technicum uses calculate in instructions about clock-chime numbers.
calculate / calculate / 1704
Lexicon technicum: or, an universal English dictionary of arts and sciencesexact attested form / OPEN RECORD ↗SOURCE REPORTEDlexicographic first use
English lexicographic first-use record
calculate / calculate / 1542
Calculate — Word Historyexact attested form / OPEN RECORD ↗06
SEARCH IS DISCOVERY, NOT PROOF
EVERY RESULT OPENS A PERMANENT EVIDENCE RECORD.
Matching text only locates a record. It does not raise confidence, settle a dispute, establish cognacy, or turn a source report into direct inspection. Follow the result into its citations and editorial limits.