Science & TechnologyGreek → English
Microprocessor
/ˈmaɪkroʊˌprɒsɛsər/noun
A computer's central processing unit built on a single integrated circuit.
The Greek roots
μικρός
mikrós
small
Literally: “small processor”
Follow a root:μικρός11 words
The story of the word
The Intel 4004 shipped in 1971 carrying about 2,300 transistors, and the word arrived with the thing. μικρός is doing real work in the name, since what was new was not the processing but the scale: a room of equipment reduced to a fingernail. Its exact Greek opposite, μακρός, gives macro.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 1970s
Same family
microchipmicroscopemicronmacro
In a sentence
There is a microprocessor in the kettle now, which is either progress or a warranty problem.