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Nicknames
2

Nicknames

Nicknames

(OP)
Any other nicknames for engineers out there?  Here are a few I know of:
  Ginger Beer (Engineer)
  Sparky (Electrical Engineer)
  Rock Licker (Mining Engineer)
  Sapper (Military Engineer)

RE: Nicknames

hehe, I'd like to know the one for Mech Eng if there's any :)

Cyril Guichard
Mechanical Engineer Consultant
France

RE: Nicknames

Clanky

RE: Nicknames

It takes EE to spell gEEk!

RE: Nicknames

I heard from some where that mechanicals are called mekys, as in "who is the meky on this job?".  Another is the nut and bolt guy...

Go Mechanical Engineering
Tobalcane

RE: Nicknames

Slimers - Mineral Processing (IE: ore recovery)

Nick
I love materials science!

RE: Nicknames

I don't know about nicknames, but certain colorful adjectives are often used in front of the word engineer.

RE: Nicknames

I have heard "mechanic" being used to refer to MEs.  This was the case when I was working in a medical device company.  Much of the staff were biologists and chemists, and used this term a lot.

"But what... is it good for?"
Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.
Have you read FAQ731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

RE: Nicknames

I've heard the following from a defense company with the engineers splitting the building in half by ME's and EE's. They called the Mech's plumbers and the Elec's wire twisters. ;)

As far as other terms for engineers, when I was in school, the industrial engineers were called imaginary engineers. To this day, I'm not sure if that was because of the i before e (You know, sqrt(-1)) or it was a statement on the content of the degree. Either way, I found it pretty funny.

And, I'm pretty sure we've all been called the most standard engineer nickname, especially after a screwup. "Get the G#$ D&*# engineer out here, NOW!"

RE: Nicknames

.....been called Metal Head or
Heavy Metal at Power Plants where I provide technical support.

RE: Nicknames

Mechanicals were referred to as "Iron Pilers" at a company I worked with.  Their duties were to build heavy iron things like turbines, boilers, etc.

rmw

RE: Nicknames

rmw;
......stacking generator rotor iron.

RE: Nicknames

In Oil & Gas ME's are "Flangeheads"

David

RE: Nicknames

The term "sapper" for a military engineer is old, although I've never researched its roots.  In the 18th Century (probably before then, too, but I don't know), whole companies of soldiers who built, or supervised the building of, fortifications, defenses, and so forth were called sappers and miners.  Their unit emblem or badge was a pick and an ax, crossed like swords.  Part of their uniform included a long leather apron.  There were also soldiers who were designated as engineers, mostly assigned to the artillery to calculate the trajectories of cannonballs through the elevation angle of the guns.

Decades before the outbreak of the American Civil War, corps of engineers, called such, were part of the armies, whose duties were again to construct, or to supervise construction, of defences and fortifications, as well as to draw maps, build bridges (temporary and permanent), and survey the landscape to facilitate troop movements.  This kind of organization probably grew from the European military organization of armies, for which there were many published treatises in both centuries.

Although the term "sapper" wasn't really common in the American Civil War for a kind of engineer, certain kinds or parts of fortifications were still referred to as "saps."  Perhaps the borrowing of infantry (or other branches of the army) by the engineers to do much of the physical labor led to the decline of the term in common use.

RE: Nicknames

Any good ones for structural?

RE: Nicknames

At one place I worked we had a couple of test engineers that were really close friends and were always seen hanging around together.

They were affectionately known as "the pair of testes". Some unkind people refereed to them as "those testicles" and there were other veriations..........

RE: Nicknames

that one made me laugh, Warpspeed.

RE: Nicknames

I once called a mechanical engineer "mech-a-nickel". He was not amused so I did not do that again. No, he didn't hit me, but was clearly not amused.

The real joke is that he was a sales person and probably earned more money than me.

jimbo

Buy a dictionary, keep it nearby and USE it. Webster's New World Dictionary of American English is recommended, and Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.

RE: Nicknames

I have just finished a movie about a particular engineer by the name of "Johnny Glucose".  We bill him as "an engineer with a $10.00/day donut habit".  He has a soliloquy on what it means to be an "engineer" that he gives a wide-eyed intern.  In it he lists many of the names engineers get called around this neck of the woods. Among the list are the usual "dweeb", "geek", "dork", "John Law", "heat", "fuzz", "dip", and on.  Johnny's idea of a good day is 2 dozen Kripy Kremes and browbeating some hapless intern into oblivion.   

RE: Nicknames

My wife calls me an engi-nerd.

I have heard ME referred to as "gearheads".

Waste water engineer- "Turd Herder"

Clyde

RE: Nicknames

I was taught the difference between Mechanical and Civil engineering -
Mechanical Engineers build ships, planes, missles, weapons while Civil Engineers build targets

Keep the wheels on the ground
Bob
showshine@aol.com

RE: Nicknames

As an ex-Navy type, here are two nautical related terms for engineers (mechanical or plant type, that is); snipes, and pump-kickers.

Where the second one comes from should be obvious. I'm curious how many of 'ya know where the first term comes from?

//mjs

RE: Nicknames

Is it from snipe hunting?

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