Engineer
Middle English (denoting a designer and constructor of fortifications and weapons; formerly also as ingineer ): in early use from Old French engigneor, from medieval Latin ingeniator, from ingeniare ‘contrive, devise’, from Latin ingenium (see engine); in later use from French ingénieur or Italian ingegnere, also based on Latin ingenium, with the ending influenced by -eer.
wiktionary
From Middle English engyneour, engineour, from Old French engigneor, engignier, from engin or from Medieval Latin ingeniator(“one who creates or one who uses an engine”), from ingenium(“nature, native talent, skill”), from in(“in”) + gignere(“to beget, produce”), Old Latin genere; see ingenious hence "one who produces or generates [new] things". Sometimes erroneously linked with engine + -eer(Can this(+) etymology be sourced?).
etymonline
engineer (n.)
mid-14c., enginour, "constructor of military engines," from Old French engigneor "engineer, architect, maker of war-engines; schemer" (12c.), 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 but not the common meaning of the word until 19c (hence lingering distinction as civil engineer). Meaning "locomotive driver" is first attested 1832, American English. A "maker of engines" in ancient Greece was a mekhanopoios.
engineer (v.)
1818, "act as an engineer," from engineer (n.). Figurative sense of "arrange, contrive, guide or manage (via ingenuity or tact)" is attested from 1864, originally in a political context. Related: Engineered. Middle English had a verb engine "contrive, construct" (late 14c.), also "seduce, trick, deceive" (c. 1300) and "put to torture."
