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Re:Thinking bigger: a free engineering school by swamp40 on Wednesday August 28, 2013 @05:30PM (#6292816)
Just as the scientists and tinkerers of yester-year once appropriated the term Engineer from the well respected steam engine operators, today's programmers have grabbed the still respectable term and ran off with it.
Re:Thinking bigger: a free engineering school by zalzane on Wednesday August 28, 2013 @05:52PM (#6292943)
>scientists and tinkerers of yester-year once appropriated the term Engineer from the well respected steam engine operators,

engineer (n.) early 14c., "constructor of military engines," from Old French engigneor, from Late Latin ingeniare (see engine); general sense of "inventor, designer" is recorded from early 15c.; civil sense, in reference to public works, is recorded from c.1600. Meaning "locomotive driver" is first attested 1832, American English. A "maker of engines" in ancient Greece was a mekhanopoios. [1]

It looks like the steam engine operator meaning of the word didn't show up until the 19th century.

[1] http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=engineer

Re:Thinking bigger: a free engineering school by pessimizer on Wednesday August 28, 2013 @06:22PM (#6293076)
Re:Thinking bigger: a free engineering school by swamp40 on Thursday August 29, 2013 @11:47AM (#6296460)
Wow.