computist

English

Etymology

compute +‎ -ist

Noun

computist (plural computists)

  1. One who performs computations.
  2. One who performs computus (calculation of the date of Easter).
    • 2013 August 8, Charlotte Mulcare, “The lost mathematicians: Numbers in the (not so) dark ages”, in plus.maths.org‎, retrieved 2013-09-08:
      Despite the high acclaim and wide acceptance of Bede's work, centuries later, medieval computists were still working on the same problem. Given the (relatively) confined scope of the mathematics involved, how did computus manage to remain such a core intellectual pursuit? In part, computists refined the basic model Bede had popularised. The introduction of a golden number in circa 1150 enabled computists to reference a given year's position in the 19-year cycle. It was calculated as (year number, divided modulo 19) + 1. By this reckoning, 2013/ 19, remainder 18; 18+1 = 19. Thus, 2013 is the 19th year in the 19-year cycle.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for computist in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.)

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