electronic computer

Noun

electronic computer (plural electronic computers)

1. (dated, retronym) A programmable computer.
   • Although glamour equipment such as the electronic computers have had most of the headlines in recent years, the mimeograph machine is still grinding out billions of copies of material a year.1956 November 8, Alexander R. Hammer, “Duplicator Still The ‘Work Horse’”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
   • To invoke the aid of an electronic computer in mapping Yeats's private worlds of myth and symbol and Irish legend may well arouse disquiet.1963, James Allan Painter, “Editor's Preface”, in Stephen Maxfield Parrish, editor, A Concordance to the Poems of W. B. Yeats, Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, →ISBN, page v

   Synonyms:

   'puter, box, calculator, computer, data processing machine, electronic brain, machine, number cruncher, thinking machine