The word is used by [Ada Lovelace][1], "the world's first programmer" in [one of her treatises][2] on the potential power of Babbage's Analytical Engine.

> Mr Babbage's invention puts an engine in the place of the computer;
> the question is set to the instrument, or the instrument is set to the
> question, and by simply giving it motion the solution is wrought, and
> a string of answers is exhibited.

While this may not be quite the sense asked for, it reinforces the point that looking for a strictly constrained definition of a term that conveys much of its original non-computing meaning in the contemporary syntactical usage may be an interesting exercise but also possibly a bit of a wild goose chase.
 


  [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_Lovelace
  [2]: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Edinburgh_Review/Volume_59/Babbage%27s_Calculating_Engine