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Until recently I had not realized that the word, mechanic, meant manual laborer in the 17th-19th Centuries. Since it didn't mean that in the beginning (Greek for engineer) and it's not used that way now, what caused it to stray from its origins? Geoff the manual laborer | ||
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Etymology.com says that mechanic meaning the sense of one who is employed in manual labor, a handicraft worker, an artisan is from the 1560s. Yet, the sense of its meaning of being a skilled workman who is concerned with making or repair of machinery is from 1660s. However, the reason for the differences is not given. | |||
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Copied from the OED:
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So did the meaning change when the medieval church became the center of learning, and changed the classical trivium to the quadrivium? | |||
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changed the classical trivium to the quadrivium? The trivium and the quadrivium were both part of the medieval liberal arts course of studies. Actually (as a word) quadrivium, meaning a four part course of study", predates trivium. So, I am not quite sure what this means? Classical Latin both trivium and quadrivium, but they meant "a place where three roads met" and "a place where four roads met". —Ceci n'est pas un seing. | |||
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I may be confused (what's new?) but I thought trivium came first, then with the rise of the church, they changed/added to the official view of what an educated person needed to know, creating the quadrivium. The times cited in the OED quotation seemed to suggest the belittling of the term, "mechanic" under the church's influence. Edit: I'm wrong. They added the quadrivium; it didn't supplant the trivium. Time-wise, though, might my guess be right? | |||
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Time-wise, though, might my guess be right? As I understand it, the trivium was named after the quadrivium. That grammar. rhetoric, and logic were taught before the quadrivium came along is certain. It just wasn't called the trivium yet.
—Ceci n'est pas un seing. | |||
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Thanks, Z. I had it bass ackwards! But I'm stil puzzled as to how the word went form a learned occupation to a lowly one, then back to learned, as in such terms as quantum mechanics. All this arose while reading Howard Zinn's history book that former Indiana governor Mitch Daniels called, "execrable...crap." Zinn often quotes 18th and 19th Century histories wherein "mechanic" is used as a lowly occupation. I shake my head in disbelief that Daniels is now president of Purdue University, and being paid a zillion bucks a year.This message has been edited. Last edited by: Geoff, | |||
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Shakespeare, of course, had the rude mechanicals in A Midsummer Night's Dream, who were portrayed as (and by) clowns. Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life. | |||
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Well, that explains a bit about my work habits. Geoff the tree-hugging chainsaw mechanic  | |||
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