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Glite Dictionary
Hollerith card

Hollerith card

9.9
A stiff paper card with holes used to record information for early computers
  • noun
  • /ˈhɒlərɪθ kɑrd/
  • Archaic
translation icon : tarjeta Hollerith
  • The museum displayed a vintage Hollerith card to showcase the history of early computing.

Examples

  • During the census, officials used Hollerith cards to efficiently collect and process data.

  • Engineers developed software to interpret the data recorded on Hollerith cards from the 1940s.

  • Back when I was a young'un, in the days of Hollerith cards and Fortran, there was something called the "Three Body Problem."

    Blog text (13)

Synonyms

punch card
vsHollerith card
  • Archaic
11 7.4

A stiff card with holes that show information used by old computers

is the historical named term used in early computing for the same device

Surface Forms

Hollerith card singular
Hollerith cards plural

Morphology

Hollerith + card

This is an eponymous compound: 'Hollerith' is a proper name referring to a person (Herman Hollerith) and does not itself describe the physical or functional properties of the object, while 'card' only signals a generic physical item. A B1 learner who knows the word 'card' but not the historical eponym would not be able to infer the specialized meaning 'punched data card', so the expression is opaque.

Etymology

Hollerith card comes from Herman Hollerith, an inventor who used stiff cards with small punched holes to record answers when he helped count people in the census. Each pattern of holes stood for different facts, so the cards were used to 'store' information, which is why the name means 'a card used to record data'.