mechanicus

Forms

mēchanicus (feminine mēchanica, neuter mēchanicum); first/second-declension adjective^[1][2] As a noun, mēchanicus, genitive mēchanicī, masculine, second declension.^[2][1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek μηχανικός (mēkhanikós),^[2][1][3] from μηχανή (mēkhanḗ, “device, machine”).^[3][4] Wiktionary notes that it can also be analysed as māchina with -icus.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The noun is first found in Lucilius, apparently for an acrobat who performs on gymnastic apparatus.^[2][5][3]

Semantic evolution

As a noun it meant an engineer: Columella cites the name engineers give to a siphon, and Suetonius tells of a mēchanicus who promised to bring great columns up to the Capitol at small cost.^[2] As an adjective it meant concerned with machines or engineering, mechanical, mostly in post-Augustan Latin: Gellius has disciplīna mēchanica and Firmicus Maternus ars mēchanica.^[2][5] Isidore of Seville defines mēchanica as a skill or knowledge in which the making of all things comes together.^[6]

Ecclesiastical Latin kept the sense “mechanical”,^[7] while in Medieval Latin the noun could also mean a sorcerer.^[8] English borrowed the adjective in the late 14th century as mechanic, and the noun in the 1560s.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius uses the noun, apparently for an acrobat.^[2][3]
• 1st century AD – Columella uses it for engineers.^[2][3]
• c. 165 AD – Gellius uses the adjective of a branch of learning.^[5][3]
• 343/350 AD – Firmicus Maternus speaks of ars mēchanica.^[5][3]
• late 14th century – Borrowed into English as mechanic.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of machines or engineering, mechanical.^[2][5][7]

Noun

1. An engineer.^[2]
2. An acrobat performing with apparatus.^[2]
3. (Medieval Latin) A sorcerer.^[8]

Related words

• māchina
• English mechanic

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill