artificern.
/ɑːˈtɪfᵻsə/, U.S. /ɑrˈtɪfəsər/, /ˈɑrdəˌfɪsər/ 1. A person who makes things by art or skill; an artisan, a craftsman or craftswoman.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > worker > workers according to type of work > manual or industrial worker > [noun] > manual worker > skilled worker or craftsman
wright?a695
craftyeOE
craftimanOE
craftmanc1275
wroughtc1275
master-mana1325
mister mana1325
craftsmana1382
man of craft1389
artificera1393
handcraftman?c1480
handcraftsman1485
mechanic1509
handcrafta1525
handicraftsman1530
artisana1538
handicraftmana1544
handicraft1547
artsman1551
artist1563
mechanician1570
tradesmana1591
mechanical1600
mechanist1606
Daedal?1614
blue apron1629
Daedalus1631
crafter1643
fitter1648
mystery-man1671
toolsman1821
fundi1860
tradie1912
craftspersona1917
a1393 J. Gower Confessio Amantis (Fairf.) vii. l. 1691 Artificers, Whiche usen craftes and mestiers, Whos Art is cleped Mechanique.
1445–6 Rolls of Parl.: Henry VI (Electronic ed.) Parl. Feb. 1445 §44. m. 6 Þe wages of..a maister tyler or sclatter, rough mason and meen carpenter, and other artificers..by the day .iij. d. with mete and drynk.
a1475 J. Russell Bk. Nurture (Harl. 4011) in Babees Bk. (2002) i. 187 Worshipfulle merchaundes and riche artyficeris.
c1517 King Henry VIII Let. 3 May in Camden Misc. (1992) XXXI. 32 A great number of..malicious jorneymen of theire..rancorous disposition against aliens and strangers, artificers and others..soddenly assembled themselves withein our..citty.
1592 T. Nashe Pierce Penilesse (Brit. Libr. copy) sig. C4 v A base Artificer, that hath no reuenues to bost on.
1659 J. Milton Considerations touching Hirelings 147 From the magistrate himself to the meanest artificer.
1671 J. Milton Paradise Regain'd iv. 59 Carv'd work, the hand of fam'd Artificers In Cedar, Marble, Ivory or Gold.
1736 Gentleman's Mag. June 342/1 A few ignorant Artificers in Market-Towns, or Farmers in Country-Parishes,..under the Character of Ruling Elders.
1771 T. Smollett Humphry Clinker III. 6 The council [of the Edinburgh magistracy] is composed of deacons, one of whom is returned every year, in rotation, as representative of every company of artificers or handicraftsmen.
1809 E. A. Kendall Trav. Northern Parts U.S. I. xxiii. 227 The inhabitants are principally artificers, as nailers, joiners and cartwrights.
1882 Cent. Mag. Jan. 405/1 When and how vase-painter, jeweler, and bronze artificer commenced in their humble way these transformations, we know not.
1912 ‘Saki’ Unbearable Bassington i. 13 Bygone craftsmen and artificers who had hammered and wrought and woven.
1956 J. W. F. Hill Tudor & Stuart Lincoln iii. 57 The many parishes..provided good and honest livings for learned incumbents and parsons, because of the privy tithes of rich merchants, clothiers and artificers.
2000 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 29 Apr. (Weekend Suppl.) 9/2 Ananda, a lapsed artificer and eyepainter of Buddha statuary..is also inscrutable to Anil.
2. A student or practitioner of (any of) the sciences or liberal arts; a scientist; a scholar. rare after 17th-cent.In quot. 1948 translating Domingo Gundisalvo's De Divisione Philosophie (c1150).
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > scholarly knowledge, erudition > learned person, scholar > [noun]
uþwitec888
larewc900
learnerc900
witec900
wise manOE
leredc1154
masterc1225
readera1387
artificer1449
man of science1482
rabbi1527
rabbin1531
worthy1567
artsmanc1574
philologer1588
artist1592
virtuoso1613
sophist1614
fulla1616
scholastica1633
philologist1638
gnostic1641
scholarian1647
pundit1661
scientman1661
savant1719
ollamh1723
maulvi1776
pandect1791
Sabora1797
erudit1800
mallam1829
Gelehrter1836
erudite1865
walking encyclopaedia1868
Einstein1942
J. Metham Amoryus & Cleopes (1916) 232 An artyfycer nowe were nede to me, That coude a straunge style puryfye.
1589 G. Puttenham Arte Eng. Poesie i. i. 1 The premises considered, it giueth to the name and profession no smal dignitie and preheminence, aboue all other artificers, Scientificke or Mechanicall.
1625 N. Carpenter Geogr. Delineated i. xi. 242 Oftentimes in the Artificer there wants diligence in obseruing the right houre and moment of the Eclipse.
1658 tr. G. della Porta Nat. Magick vi. ii. 179 Artificers call those pellets which are made of the salts, and the forenamed powder and water, Pastils.
1948 Isis 39 35 So far as the ‘artificer’ of this science is concerned, he is ‘the natural philosopher who proceeding rationally from causes to effects and from effects to causes seeks out principles’.
3. An artful, cunning, or devious person; a trickster, a dissembler. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > ability > skill or skilfulness > cunning > [noun] > cunning person
foxc1000
yepea1250
slies1297
wily-man1393
wilyc1400
sneck-drawer1402
piea1425
wily-piec1450
artificera1500
tod?a1513
Sim Subtlea1529
serpentinea1533
prata1542
wily beguile1550
wily-wat?1550
elfa1556
dog fox1609
saccularian1652
sly-cap1681
sly-boots1699
craftsmaster1717
scunge1824
sleeveen1834
chickaleary1869
sneck-draw1886
rusée1889
slypuss1942
a1500 (c1435) J. Lydgate Daunce Machabree (Lansd.) 497 Yeve hidir thyn hand, thou Artificeer... [Death's] strook is sodeyn, fro which no man may flee.
1572 R. T. in C. Carlile Disc. sig. Aijv I therfore the least of all the members of Christ, hearing dayly Antichrist and his artificers (I meane the Pope and the Papistes) so cunning in the Cannon lawe, and Popish doctours.
1604 R. Parsons 3rd Pt. Treat. Conuersions in Treat. Three Conuersions Eng. II. viii. 434 This insolent bragg and prouocation to scripture by these artificers.
1614 W. Raleigh Hist. World i. iv. iii. §5. 220 Antipater..a subtile artificer, & well vnderstanding their aptness to diuision, refused.
1621 R. Burton Anat. Melancholy ii. i. iv. i. 298 Many mountebanks, quacksaluers, Empericks,..make this noble & profitable Art to be euill spoken of, and contemned, by reason of such base and illiterate artificers.
1711 tr. L. Bordelon Hist. M. Oufle ii. ix. 250 When he heard the News of it, he infallibly concluded, that this Artificer made use of Magic, to attract her Love.
1767 W. Harte Amaranth 163 By his own art th'artificer was try'd, And lawyers beat him on the quibbling side.
1864 H. E. P. Spofford Azarian 58 Just as kind a little fancy as if it were the truth. Ah, I see, tiny artificer, you don't want to hear what you did.
1988 L. Erdrich Tracks (1989) viii. 196 I would be free of Nanapush, the smooth-tongued artificer.
4.
a. A constructor, a manufacturer; the maker of a particular object.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > creation > [noun] > construction > one who constructs
maker1297
artificer1533
artifex1605
constructor1751
fabricant1756
1533 T. Elyot Of Knowl. Wise Man iv. f. 54 A counning Artifycer foreseethe in his ymagination the figure of the thynge that he warketh.
1570 J. Dee in H. Billingsley tr. Euclid Elements Geom. Math. Præf. sig. dijv To what Artificer, is not Picture, a great pleasure and Commoditie?
1638 H. Wotton in W. B. Scoones Four Cent. Eng. Lett. (1880) 53 Intimating unto me (how modestly soever) the true artificer.
1699 R. Bentley Diss. Epist. Phalaris (new ed.) 110 Called Thericlean, from their shape, whatsoever Artificer made them.
1725 F. Hutcheson Inq. Ideas Beauty & Virtue i. iv. 39 Some Works of Art acquire a distinct Beauty by their Correspondence to some universally suppos'd Intention in the Artificer, or the Persons who employ'd him.
1791 W. Cowper tr. Homer Odyssey in Wks. (1835–7) XIV. xxiii. 252 In that bed elaborate,..A special sign consists; I was myself The artificer; I fashion'd it alone.
1823 M. W. Shelley Valperga I. xiii. 272 The artificer of the bower had despoiled an hundred gardens to decorate only the floor of the platform.
1956 J. K. Feibleman Inst. of Society iii. ix. 116 Homo Faber proves to be an artificer of parts, whose labours go to the production of works.
1994 S. Pinker Lang. Instinct xi. 360 We are forced to conclude that the watch had an artificer who designed the watch with the goal of timekeeping in mind.
b. spec. Chiefly with capital initial. God or a god, considered as the creator of the universe. Frequently with modifying adjective, as divine artificer, great artificer, etc., or in artificer of the world and variants. Cf. maker n. 2.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > deity > Christian God > [noun] > creator
wrightc888
lightOE
sheppendOE
sheppera1175
wroughtc1275
creatorc1300
shaper1303
maker1340
workera1382
authora1413
workman1440
workmaster1531
artificer?1555
re-creator1587
architector1639
architect1659
enlivener1663
God almighty1787
?1555 T. Paynell tr. J. L. Vives Office of Husband sig. Nij The Philosopher Plato doth say, that the whole worlde is so compacte and bounde together by God the artificer, as it were with certayne knottes.
1578 J. Banister Hist. Man ii. f.39 Most sapiently hath the diuine artificer decreed this part.
1659 J. Pearson Expos. Apostles Creed i. 33 The great Artificer of the world.
1693 T. Yalden in J. Dryden Examen Poeticum 372 Archimedes, in his Crystal Sphere, Seem'd to correct the World's Artificer.
1735 T. Lewis Inq. Shape, Beauty & Stature Person of Christ ii. 95 The Christian replied, with Salt enough, that the Great Artificer of the World..was making a Coffin for his Master Julian.
1793 T. Taylor tr. Proclus in tr. Plato Cratylus 53 The fontal sun subsists in Jupiter, the perfect artificer of the world.
1835 W. Dunlap Thirty Years Ago xii. 113 The great and all-beneficent Artificer of that great universe, whose revolving worlds and central suns cherish life and motion.
1883 E. Arnold Pearls of Faith 41 Nowhere another one, we see, Wondrous ‘Artificer!’ like Thee.
1918 New Castle (Pa.) News 27 Mar. 16/5 To restore fallen man and make it possible for him to fulfil the plan of the divine Artificer.
1964 Greece & Rome 2nd Ser. 11 11 The great architect and artificer of the universe by whom all things visible and invisible were made.
2001 Jrnl. Law & Relig. 16 709 God, the great Artificer, makes artifacts that in realizing God's intentions for them redound upon their maker.
5. Military.
a. A military engineer; (originally) a contracted civilian artisan; (later) a skilled soldier attached to the ordnance, artillery, and engineer service.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > warrior > soldier > soldier with special duty > [noun] > others
artificera1553
man-catcher1649
stormer1655
sallier1685
pressmana1694
camp colour-man1753
sharpshooter1802
train soldier1833
escalader1849
adviser1854
outflanker1854
observer1870
spiker1884
mopper-up1917
slushy1919
wire-cutter1922
televisionary1925
flash-spotter1930
spotter1931
parashooter1940
parashot1940
bunker buster1944
sound-ranger1978
yomper1982
technical1992
a1553 King Edward VI Chron. an. 1551 (1996) 52 Mr. Croft appointed to go into Ireland and there with Rogers and certain artificers to take the havens aforesaid and begin some fortifications.
1590 W. Segar Bk. Honor & Armes iv. iv. 58 An Artificer following the Campe, and exercising his Arte or Mysterie (notwithstanding he bee also in Pay) may bee repulsed to fight with any priuare Soldier that maketh particular profession and exercise of Armes.
1612 W. Shute tr. T. de Fougasses Gen. Hist. Venice ii. 254 They builded a Fort there with all expedition: which that they might finish with more safetie, they called great numbers of Souldiers and Artificers from the Armie.
1727 D. Scott Hist. Scotl. iv. 96 He order'd all the Artificers in the Army to pass to the next Wood, and cut and make Ladders.
1758 S. M. Hamilton Lett. to Washington (1899) II. 321 The 2d. Company of Artificers of the 2d. Regiment.
1804 Ld. Nelson in Disp. & Lett. (1845) V. 508 The conduct of all the artificers on the late Hindostan's accident, was very meritorious.
1861 U.S. Army Regulations 520 Every volunteer non-commissioned officer,..and artificer, who enters the service.
1936 Amer. Hist. Rev. 41 257 According to the returns of the forces at Wills Creek on June 8, the whole army comprised..1736 regulars..62 gunners, matrosses, and artificers of the Royal Regiment of Artillery; and 30 sailors.
1990 A. Beevor Inside Brit. Army i. 3 The only colours to stand out are board-mounted photographs of infantrymen on patrol, tanks at dawn, or artificers at work on a huge engine.
2000 P. Pullman Amber Spyglass (2001) xxviii. 396 Mechanics and artificers were fuelling aircraft, loading weapons, and calibrating sights and measures.
b. An engineer or skilled technician in a navy, esp. the Royal Navy. Frequently with modifying word, as engine-room artificer, ordnance artificer, etc.; also in compounds, as artificer-engineer.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > hostilities at sea > seafaring warrior or naval man > [noun] > artificer
artificer1769
tiffy1899
1716 J. Perry State of Russia 165 Upon his coming over to England he resolv'd to have none but English built Ships made in his Countrey, and was thereupon pleased to entertain several English Builders and Artificers for his Navy that he intended to establish.]
1769 W. Falconer Universal Dict. Marine at Clerk of the Check An officer in the royal dock-yards, who keeps a muster or register of all the men employed aboard his majesty's ships and vessels, and also of all the artificers and others in the service of the navy at the port where he is settled.
1884 Encycl. Brit. XVII. 294/1 The engine-room artificers, leading stoker, and stokers are under his [sc. the engineer's] immediate control.
1899 F. T. Bullen Way Navy 34 My life-long admiration for the blue-jacket proper will be shared by his brothers in arms, the stoker and engine-room artificer (‘tiffy’ as we call him).
1902 Monthly Rev. Aug. 92 The Admiralty have conferred the charge of machinery in small vessels on fifty-six artificer-engineers.
1941 Zanesville (Ohio) Signal 24 July 7/3 (advt.) Can you tell a Navy man who is in the Artificer Branch from one who is in the Messman's Branch?
2001 Navy News Sept. 6/6 As we did not carry an ordnance artificer, a discussion arose as to who would maintain the gun.
6. A contriver or deviser of something immaterial.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > discovery > invention, devising > [noun] > one who contrives or invents
upfinder1430
weaverc1430
engineer?a1513
deviser1523
inventor1555
artificer1569
setter1600
contrivera1652
concoctor1843
1569 J. Sanford tr. H. C. Agrippa Of Vanitie Artes & Sci. xlv. f. 58 Menne ignoraunte in aunciente Migicke, moste damnable artificers of damnation.
1605 F. Bacon Of Aduancem. Learning ii. sig. Bbb2 There is no such artificer of dissimulation. View more context for this quotation
1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost iv. 121 Artificer of fraud..the first That practisd falshood under saintly shew. View more context for this quotation
1728 E. Young Universal Passion: Satire VI 6 Wisdom the sole artificer of bliss.
1797 A. Radcliffe Italian I. ix. 268 The prophet and artificer of all my misfortunes.
1860 E. B. Pusey Minor Prophets 433 That artificers of death by their own art should perish.
1940 Phylon 1 248 Stalin..was one of the most energetic artificers of the central machinery.
1999 Philos. East & West 49 326 Not only is the ideal poet not denigrated as the artificer of falsehood, he is acclaimed as the maker or creator worthy of the title of philosopher.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2008; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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