Computer
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Root
pura
to winnow, to thresh, to beat out grain and blow the chaff away, to strip clean
Computer traces past Latin com- to the labial root, Shona pura, to winnow clean
- Confidence
- 54/100
- Root language
- Shona
- Descent begins
- computerEnglish
The consensus position
Mainstream comparative linguistics derives computer from English compute, from French computer, from Latin computare (com- "together" plus putare "to reckon, prune"), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pewH- "to cleanse". No connection to Shona or any Bantu language is recognised; Shona komputa is treated as a recent loan from English.
The working behind this.
The full descent — 11 links from the attested form down to the root — the segment-by-segment correspondences, the phonological breakdown and the case for the derivation are behind an account.
An account opens 10 entries in full, free.