Engineer
nounA person who designs, builds, or maintains machines, structures, or systems.
How to spell engineer
8 letters · 3 syllables
How to pronounce engineer
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does engineer mean?
- nounA person who designs, builds, or maintains machines, structures, or systems.
- verbTo design and build, or to arrange something cleverly so that a desired result occurs.
Engineer in a sentence
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noun
The engineer inspected the bridge for stress fractures.
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verb
The team had to engineer a quieter cooling system for the office.
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noun
As a software engineer, she spends her days writing and testing code.
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verb
Managers tried to engineer a smooth transition between the two departments.
Where does engineer come from?
Language of origin: Latin
This word traces back to the Latin ingenium, meaning 'natural talent' or 'cleverness', the same root that gives us 'ingenious'. In medieval Latin this became ingeniator, a person who designed and operated ingenia, the clever contraptions and siege machines of war. English took the word through Old French engigneor in the 1300s, when an 'engineer' was someone who built military engines such as catapults and battering rams. Over the following centuries the meaning broadened from machines of war to the civil works of roads, bridges, and engines of all kinds, giving us the modern professional sense. The spelling trap lives in the middle: the unstressed '-gin-' is easy to mangle, and the doubled 'e' of '-neer' surprises writers who expect '-near' or '-ier'.
How the word is built
- engine (from Latin ingenium: cleverness, skill)
- -eer (agent suffix: one who works with)
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