calculate

英文词源

calculate

calculate: [16] Calculate comes from the past participial stem of the Latin verb calculāre, a derivative of the noun calculus, which meant ‘pebble’. This was almost certainly a diminutive form of Latin calx, from which English gets calcium and chalk. The notion of ‘counting’ was present in the word from ancient times, for a specialized sense of Latin calculus was ‘stone used in counting, counter’ (its modern mathematical application to differential and integral calculus dates from the 18th century).

Another sense of Latin calculus was ‘stone in the bladder or kidney’, which was its meaning when originally borrowed into English in the 17th century.
=> calcarious, calcium, calculus, causeway, chalk

calculate (v.)

1560s, "to compute, to estimate by mathematical means," from Latin calculatus, past participle of calculare "to reckon, compute," from calculus (see calculus). Meaning "to plan, devise" is from 1650s. Replaced earlier calculen (mid-14c.), from Old French calculer. Related: Calculable.