engineer vs operant

engineer

noun
  • A person who formulates plots or schemes; a plotter, a schemer. 

  • A person who drives or operates a locomotive; a train driver. 

  • A person professionally engaged in the technical design and construction of large-scale private and public works such as bridges, buildings, harbours, railways, roads, etc.; a civil engineer. 

  • A person who drives or operates a fire engine. 

  • Preceded by a qualifying word: a person who uses abilities or knowledge to manipulate events or people. 

  • A soldier engaged in designing or constructing military works for attack or defence, or other engineering works. 

  • Originally, a person engaged in designing, constructing, or maintaining engines or machinery; now (more generally), a person qualified or professionally engaged in any branch of engineering, or studying to do so. 

  • A person who operates a steam engine; specifically (nautical), a person employed to operate the steam engine in the engine room of a ship. 

verb
  • To use genetic engineering to alter or construct (a DNA sequence), or to alter (an organism). 

  • To formulate plots or schemes; to plot, to scheme. 

  • To work as an engineer. 

  • To employ one's abilities and knowledge as an engineer to design, construct, and/or maintain (something, such as a machine or a structure), usually for industrial or public use. 

  • To plan or achieve (a goal) by contrivance or guile; to finagle, to wangle. 

operant

noun
  • An operative person or thing. 

  • Any of a class of behaviors that produce consequences by operating (i.e., acting) upon the environment. 

adj
  • That operates to produce an effect. 

How often have the words engineer and operant occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )