There appear to be two words to describe an engineer (a qualified engineer):  วิศวกร and วิศวะ

What's the difference between the two words?

I think it's a question for Yinn ...

 

However by going to Google translate; the first word - วิศวกร - is well translated by engineer

but the second one - วิศวะ -  by engineering which is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items,

Thais are notorious for shortening words. Is it possible the second name is simply a shortened version of the first one?

1 hour ago, bluesofa said:

วิศวกร and วิศวะ

Wanna be Engineer ?

4 hours ago, Assurancetourix said:

I think it's a question for Yinn ...

 

However by going to Google translate; the first word - วิศวกร - is well translated by engineer

but the second one - วิศวะ -  by engineering which is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items,

Thanks for the clarification.

I couldn't find find วิศวะ in the dictionary. Apparently it's วิศว

 

กร is hand

วิศวะกร engineer - hand literally person

วิศวะ is general, can be referred to the person as well as the principle, เขาเรียนวิศวะ he study engineering as well as เขาเป็นวิศวะ he is an engineer

 

วิศวะกรรม is the act or work of engineering

 

fun fact, there was no Thai word for engineering, the word วิศวะ is just the name of hindu god of creation

3 hours ago, digbeth said:

กร is hand

วิศวะกร engineer - hand literally person

วิศวะ is general, can be referred to the person as well as the principle, เขาเรียนวิศวะ he study engineering as well as เขาเป็นวิศวะ he is an engineer

 

วิศวะกรรม is the act or work of engineering

 

fun fact, there was no Thai word for engineering, the word วิศวะ is just the name of hindu god of creation

Hindu god of creation. Is that why my Thai dictionary describes วิศว as 'omnipresent, universal'?

I had no idea about the etymology of the word.

วิษวกร was a word created to translate the word engineer but since กร added to a Sandskrit word means one who does, kitchen logic would make วิษวะ engineering.

As has been pointed out  วิษวกรรม is engineering so because Thai shortens words, in this case nobody is wrong, happily both the spoken word and kitchen logic agree!   

I think that I found วิศวะ as ชื่อเทวดา in my hardback copy of the RID but it isn’t on-line. วิศว- as a prefix is explained there as everything but I can’t find any other words where it is applied so maybe engineers appeared to be doers of everything.   

Too late to edit so if anything looks wrong วิษว for example they are typos. 
Also as I lay awake last night I thought that in another topic I wrote ร้องเพล่ง when I meant ร้องเพลง, I was thinking เปล่งออก initially and the อ่ was retained.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishvakarman

 

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/วิศวกรรม