mechanic

See also: Mechanic

English

Alternative forms

• mechanick (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English mekanyk (“mechanical”), from Old French mecanique, from Latin mechanicus (“of or belonging to machines or mechanics, inventive”), from Ancient Greek μηχανικός (mēkhanikós, “pertaining to machines or contrivance, mechanic, ingenious, inventive”), from μηχανή (mēkhanḗ, “a machine, contrivance”); see machine.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /məˈkænɪk/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ænɪk
• Hyphenation: me‧chan‧ic

Adjective

mechanic

1. (archaic) mechanical; relating to the laws of motion in the art of constructing things
   • 1691, John Ray, The Wisdom of God Manifested in the Works of the Creation. […], London: […] Samuel Smith, […], OCLC 1179804186:

     these mechanic philosophers

   • c. 1606–1607, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act V, scene ii]:

     Mechanic slaves, With greasy aprons, rules, and hammers.

2. (obsolete) Of or relating to a mechanic or artificer, or to the class of artisans; hence, rude; common; vulgar; base.
   • 1654, Richard Whitlock, Zootomia; Or, Observations on the Present Manners of the English

     Authors both Sacred and Profane we see complain of the Level of Learning, with Mechanick Ignorance: [...]

   • 1680, Horace, Earl of Roscommon [i.e., Wentworth Dillon, 4th Earl of Roscommon], transl., Horace’s Art of Poetry. […], London: […] Henry Herringman […], OCLC 81670860, page 17:

     But then they did not wrong themſelves ſo much, / To make a God, a Hero, or a King, / (Stripp'd of his golden Crown and purple Robe) / Deſcend to a Mechanick Dialect, / Nor (to avoid ſuch meanneſs) ſoaring high / With empty ſound, and aiery notions fly; [...]

   • 1748, James Thomson, “Canto II”, in The Castle of Indolence: […], London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, […], OCLC 54163524, stanza XII, page 47:

     Sometimes he ply'd the ſtrong mechanic Tool, / Or rear'd the Fabrick from the fineſt Draught; [...]

Noun

mechanic (plural mechanics)

1. (now chiefly historical) A manual worker; a labourer or artisan. [from 16th c.]
   • 1972, Christopher Hill, The World Turned Upside Down, Folio Society, published 2016, page 77:

     The lower orders were freer than they had ever been – free […] to choose their own lay preachers, mechanics like the rest of the congregation.

2. Someone who builds or repairs machinery, a technician; now specifically, someone who works with and repairs the mechanical parts of a motor vehicle, aircraft or similar. [from 17th c.]
3. A device, command, or feature which allows someone to achieve a specific task. [from 20th c.]

   This game has a mechanic where if you run toward a ledge you automatically jump off rather than just falling.

4. (slang) A hit man. [from 20th c.]
   • 1976, Newton Thornburg, Cutter and Bone, Little, Brown, →ISBN, page 250:

     And from then on, his bag was silence. Silence and killing. Overnight he became the best grunt we had, a real killer, a mechanic.

5. (gambling) A cheat who manipulates the cards or dice.

   Hyponyms: card mechanic, dice mechanic

   • 1969, Bruce Jackson, A Thief's Primer, Macmillan, →ISBN, page 91:

     I can do other things beside burglarizing. I'm a first-class crap dealer, I'm a pretty good card mechanic, pretty good dice mechanic.

   • 1995, Nicholas Pileggi; Martin Scorsese, Casino, spoken by Ace (Robert De Niro):

     It was so obvious. I mean, all of Nicky's half-assed mechanics, they were real signal happy.

Derived terms

• auto mechanic
• card mechanic
• dice mechanic

Related terms

• mechanical
• mechanically
• mechanics
• mechanism
• mechanistic
• mechanization
• mechanize

 

Translations

skilled worker on machinery

• Afrikaans: werktuigkundige
• Albanian: mekanik (sq) m
• Arabic: مِيكَانِيكِيّ‎ m (mīkānīkiyy)

  Gulf Arabic: بنچرچي‎ (bəncərci)

• Armenian: մեխանիկ (hy) (mexanik)
• Azerbaijani: mexanik
• Belarusian: меха́нік m (mjexánik)
• Bengali: কারিগর (karigôr), যান্ত্রিক (jantrik)
• Bulgarian: меха́ник (bg) m (mehánik)
• Burmese: စက်ဆရာ (my) (cakhca.ra)
• Catalan: mecànic (ca) m
• Cebuano: mekaniko
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 技工 (gei⁶ gung¹), 機械工, 机械工 (gei¹ haai⁶ gung¹)

  Mandarin: 技工 (zh) (jìgōng), 機械工 (zh), 机械工 (zh) (jīxiègōng)

  Min Nan: 技工 (zh-min-nan) (ki-kang)

  Wu: 技工 (jji kon)

• Czech: mechanik (cs) m
• Danish: mekaniker (da) c, industritekniker, maskinarbejder
• Dutch: mecanicien (nl) m, werktuigkundige (nl) m
• Esperanto: meĥaniko, maŝinisto
• Estonian: mehaanik
• Faroese: mekanikari
• Finnish: mekaanikko (fi), koneasentaja; autonasentaja (car mechanic)
• French: mécanicien (fr) m, mécanicienne (fr) f
• Georgian: მექანიკოსი (mekaniḳosi)
• German: Mechaniker (de) m, Mechanikerin (de) f
• Greek: μηχανικός (el) m or f (michanikós), μηχανοτεχνίτης (el) m (michanotechnítis)
• Hebrew: מְכוֹנַאי‎ (he) m (mekhonai)
• Hindi: मिस्त्री (hi) m (mistrī), मेकेनिक m (mekenik)
• Hungarian: gépész (hu), műszerész (hu), géplakatos (hu), szerelő (hu)
• Icelandic: vélvirki m
• Indonesian: montir (id), mekanik (id)
• Italian: meccanico (it) m
• Japanese: 修理工 (しゅうりこう, shūrikō), 自動車整備士 (ja) (じどうしゃせいびし, jidōsha seibishi), メカニック (mekanikku)
• Kazakh: механик (mexanïk)
• Khmer: ជាងម៉ាស៊ីន (ciəng maasɨn)
• Korean: 정비공 (jeongbigong), 기계공 (gigyegong)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: mekanîker m

• Kyrgyz: механик (ky) (mehanik)
• Lao: ຊ່າງຈັກ (sāng chak), ຊ່າງເຄື່ອງຈັກ (sāng khư̄ang chak), ນາຍຈັກ (nāi chak)

• Latvian: mehāniķis m, mehāniķe f
• Lithuanian: mechanikas m
• Malay: mekanik (ms)
• Maltese: mekanik m
• Maori: kaiaka mīhini
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: механикч (mn) (mekhanikch)

  Uyghurjin: ᠮᠧᠬᠠᠨᠢᠭᠴᠢ (mēqaniɣči)

• Norman: mécanicien m
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: mekaniker m

  Nynorsk: mekanikar

• Occitan: mecanician m
• Ojibwe: nanaa'idaabaanewinini
• Pashto: ميخانيک‎ m (mayxāník), مستري‎ m (mestarí), ماشينکار‎ m (māšinkãr)
• Persian: مکانیک‎ (fa) (mekânik)
• Polish: mechanik (pl) m
• Portuguese: mecânico (pt) m
• Romanian: mecanic (ro) f
• Russian: меха́ник (ru) m (mexánik)
• Scottish Gaelic: innleadair m, meacanaig m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: меха̀нича̄р m

  Roman: mehàničār (sh) m

• Slovak: mechanik m
• Slovene: mehanik m, mehaničarka f
• Spanish: mecánico (es) m
• Swedish: mekaniker (sv) c
• Tagalog: mekaniko, maninigmo
• Tajik: механик (mexanik)
• Tamil: please add this translation if you can
• Tatar: механик (tt) (mexanik)
• Thai: ช่างเครื่อง (châang-krʉ̂ʉang)
• Tibetan: འཕྲུལ་འཁོར་བཟོ་མཁན ('phrul 'khor bzo mkhan), སྐམ་སྤྱོད་བཟོ་བ (skam spyod bzo ba), འཕྲུལ་ཆས་བཟོ་པ ('phrul chas bzo pa)
• Turkish: mekanikçi (tr)
• Turkmen: mehanik
• Ukrainian: меха́нік m (mexánik)
• Urdu: مستری‎ m (mistrī), مکینک‎ m (mekenik)
• Uyghur: مېخانىك‎ (mëxanik)
• Uzbek: mexanik (uz)
• Vietnamese: thợ máy (vi)
• Yiddish: מעכאַניקער‎ m (mekhaniker)

Further reading

• “mechanic” in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2022), “mechanic”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
• “mechanic” in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• Jonathon Green (2022), “mechanic n.”, in Green's Dictionary of Slang
• Eric Partridge (2005), “mechanic”, in Tom Dalzell and Terry Victor, editors, The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, volume 2 (J–Z), first edition, London; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 1281.

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Middle English

Adjective

mechanic

1. Alternative form of mekanyk