Careful Words

mechanic (n.)

mechanic (adj.)

Made poetry a mere mechanic art.

William Cowper (1731-1800): Table Talk. Line 654.

  A lawyer without history or literature is a mechanic, a mere working mason; if he possesses some knowledge of these, he may venture to call himself an architect.

Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832): Guy Mannering. Chap. xxxvii.

With crosses, relics, crucifixes,

Beads, pictures, rosaries, and pixes,—

The tools of working our salvation

By mere mechanic operation.

Samuel Butler (1600-1680): Hudibras. Part iii. Canto i. Line 1495.

The long mechanic pacings to and fro,

The set, gray life, and apathetic end.

Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892): Love and Duty.

Mechanic slaves

With greasy aprons, rules, and hammers.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Antony and Cleopatra. Act v. Sc. 2.