>>Also let's not forget the situations where a term may change meaning over time -- e,g. What computers at JPL looked like mid-20th century ( https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/explorer/computers.html )
>>To avoid potential confusion we might might have to say "electronic digital computer"
>
>That's an easy one. Being stubborn, I use the German term Rechner, the direct translation. The word is male - so it it could not be a computer in the pre electronic sense. BTW those computers where

*WERE

>used much earlier by astronomers. Normally stored in the attic. So NASA was just using an established tradition - and work force.
>
>Also those computers are to be distinguished from "electronic analogue computer" as well.
>(Never mind. My spell checker is set to British English)

I struggled recently with sql server raiserror. That is badly named, but I have to go by what the tool expects.