ordinateur

from the Latin ordinator (the one who puts in order, the orderer). The modern meaning was proposed by the philology professor Jacques Perret in a letter dated April 16, 1955 in response to a request from IBM France, whose executives considered the word 'computer' (calculateur) far too restrictive in view of the capabilities of these machines. (This is a very rare example of the creation of a neologism authenticated by a handwritten and dated letter.)