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engineer

noun
/ˌɛn(d)ʒɪˈnɪə/UK/ˌɛnd͡ʒɪˈnɪ(ə)ɹ/US/ˈɪn.dʒɪ.nɪ.jər/

Etymology

The noun is derived from: * Middle English enginour (“one who designs, constructs, or operates military works for attack or defence, etc.; machine designer”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman enginour, engigneour [and other forms], and Middle French and Old French engigneor, engigneour, engignier (“one who designs, constructs, or operates military works for attack or defence; architect; carpenter; craftsman; designer; planner; one who deceives or schemes”) (modern French ingénieur), from engin (“contraption, device; machine; invention; creativity, ingenuity; intelligence; deception, ruse, trickery”) + -eor, -or (suffix forming agent nouns); engin is derived from Latin ingenium (“innate or natural quality, nature; intelligence, natural capacity; ability, skill, talent; (Medieval Latin) engine; machine”), from in- (prefix meaning ‘in, inside, within’) + gignere (the present active infinitive of gignō (“to bear, beget, give birth to; to cause, produce, yield”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵenh₁- (“to beget, give birth to; to produce”)) + -ium (suffix forming abstract nouns); and * from engine + -er (occupational suffix); and * from engine + -eer (suffix forming nouns denoting people associated with, concerned with, or engaged in specified activities), possibly modelled after Middle French ingénieur (a variant of Middle French, Old French engigneour; see above), and Italian ingegniere (“engineer”) (obsolete; modern Italian ingegnere). The verb is derived from the noun. Cognates * Medieval Latin, Late Latin ingeniārius (“engineer”) * Medieval Latin ingeniator (“one constructing or using an engine”) * Old Occitan engenhador, enginhador * Portuguese engenhador (obsolete), engenheiro (“engineer”) * Spanish engeñero (obsolete), ingeniero (“engineer”)

  1. derived from ingegniere — “engineer”
  2. derived from engigneour
  3. derived from ingénieur
  4. derived from *ǵenh₁-✻ — “to beget, give birth to; to produce”
  5. derived from ingenium — “innate or natural quality, nature; intelligence, natural capacity; ability, skill, talent; (Medieval Latin) engine; machine”
  6. derived from engigneor
  7. derived from enginour
  8. inherited from enginour — “one who designs, constructs, or operates military works for attack or defence, etc.; machine designer”

Definitions

  1. A soldier engaged in designing or constructing military works for attack or defence, or…

    A soldier engaged in designing or constructing military works for attack or defence, or other engineering works.

    • For tis the ſport to haue the enginer / Hoiſt with his ovvne petar, an't ſhall goe hard / But I vvill delue one yard belovve their mines, / And blovve them at the Moone: […]
    • Novv he began another Trade, and became an Ingenor, hauing got eight Fire-brands of hell more to him, onely of purpoſe to ſet our houſe a fire.

  2. A soldier in charge of operating a weapon

    A soldier in charge of operating a weapon; an artilleryman, a gunner.

    • This is hard welcome, but it was not you, / At whom the fatal enginer did ayme, / My breaſt the levell was, though you the marke, / In which conſpiracie anſwere me Duke, / Is not thy ſoule as guiltie as the Earles?
    • Wit's an unruly engine, wildly ſtriking / Sometimes a friend, ſometimes the engineer.
    • An Author who points his ſatyr at a great man, is to be looked upon in the ſame view with the engineer who ſignalized himſelf by this ungenerous practice.

  3. A person professionally engaged in the technical design and construction of large-scale…

    A person professionally engaged in the technical design and construction of large-scale private and public works such as bridges, buildings, harbours, railways, roads, etc.; a civil engineer.

  4. ›+ 10 more definitions

    1. Originally, a person engaged in designing, constructing, or maintaining engines or…

      Originally, a person engaged in designing, constructing, or maintaining engines or machinery; now (more generally), a person qualified or professionally engaged in any branch of engineering, or studying to do so.

      • Macanopoietico, an inginer, an engine-maker.
      • Somehow, everybody who isn’t in sales, marketing, or design became an engineer. “We’re hiring engineers,” read startup websites, which could mean anything from Javascript^([sic]) programmers to roboticists.

    2. A person trained to operate an engine.

      • The engineer, the deck-hand on the great lakes, or on the Mississippi or St. Lawrence or Sacramento, or Hudson or Paumanok sound, claims him.
      • One of the stokers was disabled, the others had given in, the second engineer and the donkey-man were firing-up. The third engineer was standing by the steam-valve. The engines were being tended by hand.

    3. Preceded by a qualifying word

      Preceded by a qualifying word: a person who uses abilities or knowledge to manipulate events or people.

      • a political engineer

    4. A person who formulates plots or schemes

      A person who formulates plots or schemes; a plotter, a schemer.

      • [T]he fighting men of England, masters of destruction, engineers of death!

    5. An honorific title given to engineers before their name.

    6. To employ one's abilities and knowledge as an engineer to design, construct, and/or…

      To employ one's abilities and knowledge as an engineer to design, construct, and/or maintain (something, such as a machine or a structure), usually for industrial or public use.

    7. To use genetic engineering to alter or construct (a DNA sequence), or to alter (an…

      To use genetic engineering to alter or construct (a DNA sequence), or to alter (an organism).

      • In an interesting animal study, scientists engineered mice with a specific gene defect that caused memory and learning problems.

    8. To plan or achieve (a goal) by contrivance or guile

      To plan or achieve (a goal) by contrivance or guile; to finagle, to wangle.

    9. To formulate plots or schemes

      To formulate plots or schemes; to plot, to scheme.

    10. To work as an engineer.

      • What of the grand tools with which we engineer, like kobolds and enchanters,—tunnelling Alps, canalling the American Isthmus, piercing the Arabian desert?

The neighborhood

Derived

astroengineer, bioneer, engineer boot, engineeress, engineerish, engineerization, engineer's blue, engineer's chain, engineership, engineer's scale, enginerd, engr., fungineer, glycoengineer, Imagineer, microengineer, misengineer, motorneer, nanoengineer, neuroengineer, nonengineer, nonengineering, socioengineer, subengineer, tractioneer, back-engineer, bioengineered, engineerability, engineerable, engineered, engineering, nonengineered, outengineer, overengineer, reengineer, re-engineer, retro-engineer, reverse-engineer, unengineered

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at engineer. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01engineer02design03problem04answered05answer06reaction07politics08methodology09implementation10engineering

A definitional loop anchored at engineer. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

10 hops · closes at engineer

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA