inżynier

Polish

Alternative forms

Etymology

Borrowed from French ingénieur.[1][2][3] Sense 3 is a sarcastic reference to skilled immigration schemes aimed at attracting educated people, such as engineers. First attested in 1588.[4]

Pronunciation

 
  • IPA(key): /inˈʐɘ.ɲɛr/
  • Audio:(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɘɲɛr
  • Syllabification: in‧ży‧nier

Noun

inżynier m pers (female equivalent inżynierka or inżynier, related adjective inżynierski, abbreviation inż.)

  1. (engineering) engineer (professionally engaged in the technical design and construction of large-scale private and public works such as bridges, buildings, harbours, railways, roads, etc.)
  2. engineer (person qualified or professionally engaged in any branch of engineering)
  3. (colloquial, offensive) (Can we verify(+) this sense?) dangerous immigrant, especially from Africa or the Middle East
    • 2025 July 22, Facebook[2]:
      Minister Kotula, jak myślicie przyjęła już jakiś inżynierów?
      Do you think Minister Kotula let any engineers in?

Declension

[5]

Derived terms

nouns
  • inżynierstwo
adjectives
adverbs
  • inżynieryjnie

Trivia

According to Słownik frekwencyjny polszczyzny współczesnej (1990), inżynier is one of the most used words in Polish, appearing 11 times in scientific texts, 26 times in news, 27 times in essays, 19 times in fiction, and 19 times in plays, each out of a corpus of 100,000 words, totaling 102 times, making it the 617th most common word in a corpus of 500,000 words.[6]

Noun

inżynier f (indeclinable)

  1. (engineering) female equivalent of inżynier (engineer) (professionally engaged in the technical design and construction of large-scale private and public works such as bridges, buildings, harbours, railways, roads, etc.)
    Synonym: inżynierka
  2. female equivalent of inżynier (engineer) (person qualified or professionally engaged in any branch of engineering)
    Synonym: inżynierka

References

  1. ^ Mirosław Bańko, Lidia Wiśniakowska (2021) “inżynier”, in Wielki słownik wyrazów obcych, →ISBN
  2. ^ Stanisław Dubisz, editor (2003), “inżynier”, in Uniwersalny słownik języka polskiego [Universal dictionary of the Polish language]‎[1] (in Polish), volumes 1-4, Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN SA, →ISBN
  3. ^ Witold Doroszewski, editor (1958–1969), “inżynier”, in Słownik języka polskiego (in Polish), Warszawa: PWN
  4. ^ Maria Renata Mayenowa, Stanisław Rospond, Witold Taszycki, Stefan Hrabec, Władysław Kuraszkiewicz (2010-2023) “ingenier”, in Słownik Polszczyzny XVI Wieku [A Dictionary of 16th Century Polish]
  5. ^ inżynier”, in Słownik gramatyczny języka polskiego [Grammatical Dictionary of Polish], 2022
  6. ^ Ida Kurcz (1990) “inżynier”, in Słownik frekwencyjny polszczyzny współczesnej [Frequency dictionary of the Polish language] (in Polish), volume 1, Kraków, Warszawa: Polska Akademia Nauk. Instytut Języka Polskiego, page 156

Further reading