punch card
11
7.4
- noun
- /pʌnʧ kɑrd/
- Archaic
:
tarjeta perforada
- The punch card system was once a common method for storing data in early computers.
- punch card ballot
- punch card machine
- punch card voting
The way we interacted with them, so to speak, was with punch cards and batch processing.
- The way we interacted with them, so to speak, was with punch cards and batch processing.
- We learned to programme on Forfan using punch cards.
- Like, and, you know, you can try to resist the same way as, you know, you could resist moving from punch cards to, let's say, C++ or so.
- But tomorrow's going to be a big day because folks, I think it is literally one of the last two punch cards we have for crises this year.
Examples
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I had a fascination with the old RPG punch card programming language.
Blog text (10) -
Happily, where I do vote, we still vote with a punch card.
Blog text (27) -
On the right, you see one of the "punch cards" I mentioned.
Blog text (27) -
Being old enough to remember paper tape and punch cards, I have several things packed away.
Blog text (9) -
Just a few decades ago, economists used punch cards to program data analysis.
Blog text (27) -
Annual memberships will include a punch card good for 10 admissions and will cost $100.
Blog text (10) -
Certainly, he propelled us from the plugboard age into the punch card age.
Blog text (28) -
If memory serves me correctly, I first started putting data onto punch cards at uni in about 1970 during my master's.
Blog text (22) -
Before Lync, computers were big, expensive machines that used punch cards to run programs, and there was no such thing as a free computer lab at the time either.
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To get the maximum processing speed possible, Hulse programmed the computer in assembly language using 4,000 punch cards.
Academic text (2001)
Synonyms
1
8.4
A stiff piece of paper with holes that holds data for old computers
A stiff paper card with holes used to record information for early computers
How Obsolete
- Archaic
11
7.4
- Archaic
6
3.7
- Specialized
2
3.9
2
3.3
- Specialized
106
2.8
- Specialized
238
3.5
Surface Forms
Morphology
punch + card
The compound is directly built from 'punch' (to make a hole) + 'card' (a small piece of stiff paper), so a B1 learner who knows both words can infer it is a card that has been punched/has holes. While the historical technical use for data storage might be new, the physical and functional sense (a card with holes used to represent information) is transparently derivable from the constituents.
Etymology
Punch card comes from early computers. A stiff card had holes made by a punch to show simple 'yes' or 'no' answers, so the pattern of holes held 'data'. That's why the name means a card that kept information for a machine.