engineer
Meanings
- A soldier engaged in designing or constructing military works for attack or defence, or other engineering works.
- A soldier in charge of operating a weapon; an artilleryman, a gunner.
- 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.
- 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.
- A person trained to operate an engine.
- A person who operates a steam engine; specifically (nautical), a person employed to operate the steam engine in the engine room of a ship.
- A person who drives or operates a fire engine (firefighting apparatus).
- A person who drives or operates a locomotive; a train driver.
- Preceded by a qualifying word: a person who uses abilities or knowledge to manipulate events or people.
- A person who formulates plots or schemes; a plotter, a schemer.
- An honorific title given to engineers before their name.
- 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.
- To use genetic engineering to alter or construct (a DNA sequence), or to alter (an organism).
- To plan or achieve (a goal) by contrivance or guile; to finagle, to wangle.
- To formulate plots or schemes; to plot, to scheme.
- To work as an engineer.
Pronunciation
Word forms
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”)