[? a. F. architecte or It. architetto, ad. L. architectus, f. Gr. ἀρχιτέκτων, f. ἀρχι- (see ARCHI-) + τέκτων builder, craftsman. Several of the derivatives are formed as if on L. tect-us from tegĕre; e.g., architective, -tor, -ture.]
1. A master-builder. spec. A skilled professor of the art of building, whose business it is to prepare the plans of edifices, and exercise a general superintendence over the course of their erection. (Cf. ARCHITECTURE 1.) Naval Architect: one who takes the same part in the construction of ships.
1563. Shute, Archit., A ij b. John Shute painter and Architecte.
1667. Milton, P. L., I. 732. The work some praise And some the Architect.
1758. Johnson, Idler, No. 30, ¶ 5. One pulls down his house and calls architects about him.
1815. Scott, Ld. Isles, IV. x. Temples deck’d By skill of earthly architect.
1854. Ruskin, Lect. Archit., Add. 113. No person who is not a great sculptor or painter can be an architect. If he is not a sculptor or painter, he can only be a builder.
b. loosely, A builder.
1665–9. Boyle, Occas. Refl., IV. xiii. (1675), 249. Babel, whose scattered architects have indeed made themselves a name.
2. One who designs and frames any complex structure; esp. the Creator; one who arranges elementary materials on a comprehensive plan.
1659. Parl. Speech, 2. The grand Architect would never have so framed it.
1788. Reid, Act. Powers, I. vi. 526. Plato made the causes of things to be matter, ideas, and an efficient architect.
1817. Chalmers, Astron. Disc., i. (1852), 21. The great Architect of nature.
1846. Grote, Greece, II. xxi. 209. The inference that Peisistratus was the first architect of the Iliad and Odyssey.
3. One who so plans, devises, contrives, or constructs, as to achieve a desired result (especially when the result may be viewed figuratively as an edifice); a builder-up.
1588. Shaks., Tit. A., V. iii. 122. Chiefe Architect and plotter of these woes.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 526. Most strange belly-gods and architects of gluttony.
1649. Milton, Eikon., xxi. The architects of their own happiness.
1873. Burton, Hist. Scot., I. ix. 298. The Architect of his own fortunes.
b. transf. of things.
1835. Lytton, Rienzi, VIII. iii. 365. Gold is the Architect of Power!
1871. J. Macduff, Mem. Patmos, xviii. 251. The deeds done to-day will be the architects of our bliss or woe.
