mechanicadj.n.

Etymology: Partly < Middle French mécanique (adjective) characterized by use of tools and the hands (c1265 in Old French), (noun) manual worker, artisan (13th cent. in Old French), and partly < its etymon classical Latin mēchanicus (adjective) mechanical, concerning machines, (noun) engineer < ancient Greek μηχανικός resourceful, relating to machines (also as noun in sense ‘engineer’ in Hellenistic Greek) < μηχανή machine n. + -ικός -ic suffix. With noun use compare also post-classical Latin mechanicum mechanical device, machine (early 12th cent. in a British source).Compare Spanish mecánico (c1280; 1611 as noun), Old Occitan mecanic (14th cent.; c1350 as noun), Portuguese mecânico (14th cent.), Italian meccanico (1581 in Tasso in form mecanico ; 1592 as noun). Old English mechanisc , used once in Ælfric's Lives of Saints in the sense ‘mechanical’ (of an astrological instrument), represents an earlier loan of Latin mechanicus , with substitution of -ish suffix¹ for the Latin adjective-forming suffix. Compare also German mechanisch (16th cent.), Dutch mechanisch (1740), Swedish mekanisk (1662 in form mechanisk ), Danish mekanisk , and as noun German †Mechanikus (16th cent.), †Mechanikus (late 18th cent.), and the derivative forms German Mechaniker (19th cent.), Swedish mekaniker , Danish mekaniker . The senses ‘relating to manual labour’, hence ‘lowly, vulgar’, not found in ancient Greek, probably arose from the medieval distinction between the liberal and illiberal arts (see liberal adj.). With mechanic art (see sense A. 1) compare French art mécanique (c1265 in Old French) and its etymon post-classical Latin ars mechanica (c1150 in this sense in a British source). In Latin the expression was used as a synonym of ars servilis , the opposite of ars liberalis , but why the adjective mechanicus was chosen is not clear. This strand of meaning appears not only in Old French but also in the Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian cognates; it is still recorded as an archaism in some modern Portuguese and Italian dictionaries. The sense ‘relating to machines’ appears only as a learned revival from the 16th cent. Scots forms in ma- are perhaps remodelled after machine n. In adjectival use the usual word is now mechanical adj. It is uncertain whether the following example should be taken as showing a variant of the adjective or an otherwise unattested noun (compare -y suffix⁵):a1456 (a1449) J. Lydgate Minor Poems (1934) ii. 805 Wevinge of clooþe of wol..Was one þe first..Of þe seven crafftes called mechanycee [rhyme see].