mechanical
Part of speech: adj
noun
Morphological type: derivation
Topics: advertising
business
cycling
engineering
entertainment
hobbies
lifestyle
literature
marketing
media
music
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
publishing
science-fiction
sports
Etymology: Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *megʰ-der.?
Ancient Greek μηχανή (mēkhanḗ)
Proto-Indo-European *-kos
Ancient Greek -κός (-kós)
Ancient Greek -ικός (-ikós)
Ancient Greek μηχανικός (mēkhanikós)bor.
Latin mēchanicusder.
Old French mecaniquebor.
Middle English mechanic
Proto-Indo-European *h₂el-der.?
Proto-Italic *-ālis
Latin -ālisbor.
Old French -albor.
▲
Latin -ālis
Old French -elbor.
▲
Latin -ālisbor.
Middle English -al
Middle English mechanical
English mechanical
From Middle English mechanical, mechanicalle, mechanycalle, equivalent to mechanic + -al.
Base: mechanic
Affixes: -al
Inflected forms:
form: more mechanical
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: most mechanical
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: mechanicals
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: Characteristic of someone who does manual labour for a living; coarse, vulgar.
pos: adj
tags: archaic
examples: Thy Doll, and Helen of thy noble thoughts,
Is in base durance and contagious prison,
Haled thither by most mechanical and dirty hand.
all manner of silks were already become so vile and abject, that was any man seene to weare them, he was presently judged to be some countrie fellow, or mechanicall man.
gloss: Related to mechanics (the branch of physics that deals with forces acting on matter).
pos: adj
examples: mechanical engineering
gloss: Related to mechanics (the design and construction of machines).
pos: adj
examples: mechanical dictionary
gloss: Done by machine.
pos: adj
examples: mechanical task
gloss: Using mechanics (the design and construction of machines): being a machine.
pos: adj
examples: mechanical arm
gloss: As if performed by a machine: lifeless, mindless, thoughtless, automatic.
pos: adj
tags: figuratively
examples: a mechanical reply to a question
gloss: Acting as if one were a machine: lifeless or mindless.
pos: adj
examples: The pianist was too mechanical.
Edward Churchill still attended to his work in a hopeless mechanical manner like a sleep-walker who walks safely on a well-known round. But his Roman collar galled him, his cossack stifled him, his biretta was as uncomfortable as a merry-andrew's cap and bells.
gloss: Handy with machines.
pos: adj
tags: informal
examples: Why don't you ask Joe to fix it? He's very mechanical.
gloss: Relating to the mechanics of a game.
pos: adj
examples: the mechanical aspects of a trading card game
Having the mechanical imperative of scenery improving your park rating helps motivate me, admittedly, but I still appreciate the power and potential in the toolset.
gloss: Manually created layout of artwork that is camera ready for photographic reproduction.
pos: noun
examples: Since we are dealing with copy in paste-up form, we are now concerned with the preparation and assembly of elements suitable for camera-ready copy, positioned on the mechanical according to the rough layout supplied.
We'll start with a simple mechanical for a standard 7" x 10" ad, using one block of copy, some display type, and one picture.
In order to produce the posters, the advertising agency purchases photographs, composition and artwork and fabricates such property to produce layouts and mechanicals.
gloss: One who does manual labor, especially one who is similar to Shakespeare's rude mechanicals
pos: noun
examples: Rude mechanicals must know their place in a horsey army.
Furthermore, when the play juxtaposes aristocratic violence with artisanal civility, it shows the artisans as the social group that better embodies civility, and the mocking accusations of bestial inferiority leveled at the mechanicals by the aristrocratic characters are revealed as a hollow discourse that attempts to bolster and naturalize established privilege.
Zoe could not believe her eyes: this man looked nothing like the Uncle Max of her memories and nightmares; this chubby old man looked like a dwarfed bon vivant, a lecherous Santa Klaus, a comical figure in an opera, a "mechanical" from a Shakespeare play.
gloss: A robot or mechanical creature.
pos: noun
examples: Is it a mechanical, or a man in a clockwork suit?
Mechanicals arose when advanced, organic societies somehow committed suicide, from war, degeneration, unimaginable things -- or retreated, from plain simple lack of interest in the tensions of the technological life.
This is an example of what can take place when mechanicals are programmed with human attributes and designed to interact closely with humans.
gloss: A mechanical engineer.
pos: noun
examples: When the older courses had been separated from the literary curriculum eight years the civils, mechanicals and electricals had changed their relative positions four times.
A membership campaign was carried on early in the year and quite a number of the new mechanicals were reached, as well as a number of the old men who had slipped by the wayside.
"I don't need a clerk," he said. "What I need is more engineers, mechanicals, especially."
gloss: An instance of equipment failure.
pos: noun
examples: The pack are suffering mechanicals and pull up under a lamp post marking a right turn.
Equipment back then was less capable than it is today, and we often had to deal with mechanical failures, also called mechanicals and the odd injury which we called 'bio-mechanicals'.
The support can be there when you need it for major mechanicals, other emergencies and to transport all your gear to the next overnight stop.
gloss: A stop on an organ that is operated by a hand or foot control rather than having to be manually set up in advance.
pos: noun
examples: On the other hand I heard only recently of a modern marvel — an organ of two manuals and about sixteen or eighteen stops with adequate and modern mechanicals that the pastor assures me has not been touched by repairer or even by tuner in four years!
Some would like the smallest number of foot mechanicals and the greatest number of hand mechanicals; some would like to do away with the crescendo pedal; some would prefer less diapason foundation; others would want a predominance of salty reeds ;
Mechanicals within the organ need repair; the tonal resources and much of the voicing might well be expanded and updated.
gloss: A machine that performs a job typically accomplished using an animal or manual labor.
pos: noun
tags: archaic
examples: Roland jumped on the horse and with herculean strength picked her up one armed and plopped her down in front of him. “I've had my fill of mechanicals of late. Hold on.”
Above all things, I liked to hear about horseless carriages and self-powered mechanicals, but I'd settle for ghosts at a pinch.
The laws had yet to catch up to this new world where blacksmiths could put out steam-driven mechanicals and the new industry raised country merchants to the big houses.
Related words: mechanic
mechanics
mechanism
Derived words: acoustomechanical
aeromechanical
bio-mechanical
biomechanical
chemomechanical
cytomechanical
elastomechanical
electro-mechanical
electromechanical
electro-mechanical computer
endomechanical
geomechanical
histomechanical
hydromechanical
iatromechanical
immechanical
logical mechanical element
macromechanical
magnetomechanical
mechanical advantage
mechanical bank
mechanical bull
mechanical digestion
mechanical energy
mechanical engineer
mechanical engineering
mechanical eraser
mechanical erasure
mechanical erosion
mechanical game
mechanical horse
mechanical horsepower
mechanicality
mechanicalization
mechanicalize
mechanical keyboard
mechanical larynx
mechanical lithosphere
mechanically
mechanical mouse
mechanicalness
mechanical pencil
mechanical shovel
mechanical splice
mechanical stoker
mechanical sympathy
micro-electro-mechanical
micromechanical
morphomechanical
musicomechanical
nano-electro-mechanical
nanomechanical
neuromechanical
nonmechanical
optomechanical
osmomechanical
palaeomechanical
pathomechanical
pharmacomechanical
photomechanical
physicomechanical
physiomechanical
piezomechanical
poromechanical
postmechanical
premechanical
pyromechanical
quantum-mechanical
quantum mechanical
semimechanical
statistical mechanical
telemechanical
thermomechanical
tribomechanical
unmechanical
vibromechanical
wave-mechanical
Translations:
lang: Arabic
word: مِيكَانِيكِيّ
roman: mīkānīkiyy
lang: Belarusian
word: механі́чны
roman: mjexaníčny
lang: Bulgarian
word: механи́чен
roman: mehaníčen
lang: Catalan
word: mecànic
lang: Czech
word: mechanický
lang: Danish
word: mekanisk
lang: Dutch
word: mechanisch
lang: Esperanto
word: meĥanika
lang: Esperanto
word: mekanika
lang: Finnish
word: mekaaninen
lang: French
word: mécanique
lang: Galician
word: mecánico
lang: Georgian
word: მექანიკური
roman: mekaniḳuri
lang: German
word: mechanisch
lang: Greek
word: μηχανικός
roman: michanikós
lang: Ancient Greek
word: μηχανικός
roman: mēkhanikós
lang: Hungarian
word: mechanikai
lang: Hungarian
word: mechanikus
lang: Indonesian
word: mekanis
lang: Irish
word: meicniúil
lang: Italian
word: meccanico
lang: Latvian
word: mehānisks
lang: Malay
word: mekanikal
lang: Norwegian Bokmål
word: mekanisk
lang: Polish
word: mechaniczny
lang: Portuguese
word: mecânico
lang: Romanian
word: mecanic
lang: Russian
word: механи́ческий
roman: mexaníčeskij
lang: Slovak
word: mechanický
lang: Slovene
word: meháničen
lang: Spanish
word: mecánico
lang: Swedish
word: mekanisk
lang: Tagalog
word: sigmuin
lang: Ukrainian
word: механі́чний
roman: mexaníčnyj
lang: Yiddish
word: מעכאַניש
roman: mekhanish