Etymology of the word register - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: slugrustle
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 02, 2023, 02:48:03 am
content: Does anyone know the etymology for the word "register" as used in microcontrollers? Where does it come from, historically?

author: TimFox
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 02, 2023, 02:56:22 am
content: A typical dictionary definition of the term "register" before its use in computers:"a written record containing regular entries of items or details"as in an old-fashioned hotel register where guests write their names and contact information in the book.

author: cantata.tech
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 02, 2023, 03:00:13 am
content: Sure.Before I say anything, I need to point out that the origins of the word are contested on the internet and it's now claimed to be a 'Christian' word coming from Latin (Etruscan). I find it to be older than that."Register" is based on the old Phoenician particle 'gimmel'.The root particle is gér. That means "Hold" something. Also coins, money, War, arm or weapons.Also carried through French/Gallic as the word 'ongérer' or Guerre.Therefore the word "re+gi+ster" literally means 'temporary holding thing'.

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 02, 2023, 04:18:23 am
content: Quote from: slugrustle on February 02, 2023, 02:48:03 amIf you're content to go back only a few hundred years, Babbage used the term in his difference engine around 1820, as did people making simple adding machines in the early 1600s.No doubt they got it from accountants.

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 02, 2023, 08:14:31 pm
content: Yes a register is simply some support where you'd store some information. The term has been used for a lot of purposes in the past, it goes way beyond accountants.A common form of the same word is "registry", which is more about the medium where information is recorded.It comes from the latin "registrum".https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/registrum

author: NorthGuy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 02, 2023, 10:31:02 pm
content: I always thought that it comes from flip-flops. On every clock, flip-flops register their inputs (i.e. recognize, record) and hold them. Hence, people started to call flip-flop registers. Then when flip-flops where used in computers the word register moved on to the computer's world.I don't think this has anything to do with collections of records. That would be registry.

author: thm_w
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 02, 2023, 10:39:19 pm
content: Quote from: NorthGuy on February 02, 2023, 10:31:02 pm"A register is an official list or record of people or things."https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/register-recordswhat?

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 02, 2023, 11:30:17 pm
content: Quote from: NorthGuy on February 02, 2023, 10:31:02 pmAs already mentioned, early 1600s mechanical adding machines with numbers being calculated with stored in the rotational position of wheels/gears, with one decimal digit per wheel, called each collection of wheels holding one number a "register".That's a little before flip-flops.

author: Doctorandus_P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 03, 2023, 12:48:34 am
content: Another thing:In the old days, "computer" was a job title. At some times those jobs got pushed out of the market by some kind of machine.

author: amyk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 03, 2023, 03:04:23 am
content: Quote from: brucehoult on February 02, 2023, 04:18:23 am...and onlyslightlymore recently than that, the cash register.The word "accumulator" also has similar roots.

author: TimFox
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 03, 2023, 03:45:31 am
content: Quote from: Doctorandus_P on February 03, 2023, 12:48:34 amRichard Feynman's job at the Manhattan Project was running the "computers", most of whom were non-commissioned officers, typically corporals.They were organized into gangs of calculation, using mechanical desk calculators, to compute what would now be done in "computers".

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 03, 2023, 05:26:08 am
content: Quote from: amyk on February 03, 2023, 03:04:23 amI actually checked that. Surprisingly, cash registers seem to start from around 1890, more thnn 250 years after those early 1600s adding machines (and half a century after Babbage), NOT before them.

author: cantata.tech
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 03, 2023, 06:01:30 am
content: Quote from: amyk on February 03, 2023, 03:04:23 amNot that I can see, it uses a different root particle."Accumulator" uses the root particle "sum" as c and s are interchangeable so that Accumulator can also be pronounced as "A+sum+ulator"."Sum" makes contextual sense.Sum means a) "A central idea or point"b) The utmost degree (or utmost register)c) An arithmetic computationThese root particle meanings are older than the Roman Empire or the Latin language, although it will be claimed by 'some' [a countable quantity] that these words are all Latin derived.