Is the title "Civil" engineer used in lieu of "Army" enginee 5

[sigma1]

Does anyone know why the profession of Civil Engineering is called “CIVIL”. I don’t buy the argument that the British used it to describe civilian in lieu of “army” engineer. In Greek Civil is called "Politikos". "Politis" menas "Citizen" and "Politikos" politician.....

 

[sam74]

I thought it was because we are considered civil servants or protector of the people with our design of bridges, roads, dams, water and waste water plants and all the other facets of civil design

 

[JedClampett]

There used to be just engineers, but in the first example of specialization, back in the 1840's or so, it was decided that there were Military and Civil Engineers. The division was obvious at that time as one probably worked for the Army and the other in non-military areas, like bridges and dams. At that time, there wasn't electricity, machinery was very limited, and believe it or not, there weren't computers. So there was no need for EE's, ME's and CompE's.
What a glorious time it was! Except for the the diseases and stuff like that.

 

[msquared48]

The implication is that Military Engineers are not Civil. Having seen both sides of that coin, I can go with that.

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering

 

[iandig]

Actually, it dates back to what an Engineer was. Being an ex Royal Engineer, this was all part of our training. An 'Engineer' was someone who built 'Engines of War' or Siege Engines (back beyond Roman times). Romans went to war, and took Engineers with them to build their engines of war, bridges, roads, catapaults, drainage, sewers etc.. Thats why they were so succesful.
Therefore a 'Civil Engineer' works on 'non-military' but civilian projects, hence why we have Civil Engineering. Civil Engineer is now recognised far more than the original 'War Engineer', but it is called Civil because it is derived from civilian (both person and nature of project) not because of our bedside manner.