English
calculate
Calculate comes from Latin calculō ‘to reckon, compute’, from calculus ‘a pebble’, and ultimately from Latin calx ‘limestone’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcalx1‘limestone, game counter’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcalculus1‘a pebble’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcalculō1‘to reckon, compute’
- Englishearliest quotation 1591calculate1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English calculate
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1591, William Shakespeare, The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]: “A cunning man did calculate my birth.”.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcalxWiktionary, English calculate‘limestone, game counter’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcalculusWiktionary, English calculate‘a pebble’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcalculōWiktionary, English calculate‘to reckon, compute’
- Englishearliest quotation 1591calculateWiktionary, English calculate. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1591, William Shakespeare, The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]: “A cunning man did calculate my birth.”
The story
Borrowed from Latin calculātus, perfect passive participle of calculō (“to reckon, compute, calculate”, originally by means of pebbles) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from calculus (‘a pebble’), further from calx (“limestone”, calc- in compounds) + -ulus (forms diminutives).
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Today it means
verb To determine the value of something or the solution to something by a mathematical process.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “calculate”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Latin calx / calculate