Peace Engineering

In an article published by the American Society of Civil Engineering in their 1914 Transactions, Bert Young, a linguist, described the lineage of the word engineer as coming both from the Middle English engyneour, and from the Old French engignier or engigneour. These, in turn, come from Middle Latin ingeniarius, defined as one who makes or uses an engine, especially a war engine. The root of the word engine is the Latin word ingeniuman invention, an engine. Young observes that "there must have been confusion of Latin ingenuus and Latin ingeniosus. These should be almost opposite in meaning. I suppose an engineer ought to be both ingenious and ingenuous, artful and artless, sophisticated and unsophisticated, bond and free." (McDonald 1914). This dichotomy aptly captures the essence of engineering. The engineer is sophisticated in creating technology, but unsophisticated in understanding its application. As a result, engineers have historically been employed as hired guns, doing the bidding of both political rulers and wealthy corporations. But today, a new kind of engineering is emergingone rooted in the greater ideals and aspirations of engineering as a service to all of humanity.