engineer
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˌɛn(d)ʒɪˈnɪə/
ipa: /ˌɛnd͡ʒɪˈnɪ(ə)ɹ/
note: Indic
ipa: /ˈɪɲdʒɪnɪjə(r)/
note: Indic
ipa: /ɪɲˈdʒin(ɪ)jə(r)/
rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)
Forms: form: engineers
form: engineering
form: engineered
form: engineered
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”)
Senses: glosses: 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.
examples: text: In an interesting animal study, scientists engineered mice with a specific gene defect that caused memory and learning problems.
ref: 2018, Timothy R. Jennings, The Aging Brain, →ISBN, page 41:
glosses: To use genetic engineering to alter or construct (a DNA sequence), or to alter (an organism).
glosses: To plan or achieve (a goal) by contrivance or guile; to finagle, to wangle.
synonyms: machinate
glosses: To formulate plots or schemes; to plot, to scheme.
examples: text: What of the grand tools with which we engineer, like kobolds and enchanters,—tunnelling Alps, canalling the American Isthmus, piercing the Arabian desert?
ref: 1870, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Works and Days”, in Society and Solitude. Twelve Chapters, Boston, Mass.: Fields, Osgood, & Co., →OCLC, page 144:
glosses: To work as an engineer.
Derived terms: word: back-engineer
word: bioengineered
word: engineerability
word: engineerable
word: engineered
word: engineering
word: nonengineered
word: outengineer
word: overengineer
word: reengineer
word: re-engineer
word: retro-engineer
word: reverse-engineer
word: unengineered