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Mechanical vs Mecha - What's the difference?

mechanical | mecha |

As an adjective mechanical

is characteristic of someone who does manual labour for a living; coarse, vulgar.

As a noun mecha is

(anime|manga) a large armoured robot on legs, typically controlled by a pilot seated inside.

mechanical

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Characteristic of someone who does manual labour for a living; coarse, vulgar.
  • *, I.43:
    • all manner of silks were already become so vile and abject, that was any man seene to weare them, he was presently judged to be some countrie fellow, or mechanicall man.
  • Related to mechanics (the branch of physics that deals with forces acting on mass).
  • Related to mechanics (the design and construction of machines).
  • Done by machine.
  • Using mechanics (the design and construction of machines): being a machine.
  • As if performed by a machine: lifeless or mindless.
  • (of a person) Acting as if one were a machine: lifeless or mindless.
  • *, chapter=15
    • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=Edward Churchill still attended to his work in a hopeless mechanical manner like a sleep-walker who walks safely on a well-known round. But his Roman collar galled him, his cossack stifled him, his biretta was as uncomfortable as a merry-andrew's cap and bells.}}
  • (informal) Handy with machines.

    • Derived terms

    * electromechanical * mechanical erasure * mechanicality * mechanically * mechanicalness * mechanical pencil * postmechanical * premechanical

    Related terms

    * mechanic * mechanics * mechanism

    mecha

    English

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • (anime, manga) A large armoured robot on legs, typically controlled by a pilot seated inside.
  • * 1997 , Helen McCarthy, The anime movie guide
    • Having deprived her of both her mecha and her lover, Masato looks set for a nasty end, but Miku arrives to save him.
  • * 2002 , Christopher Hart, Anime mania: how to draw characters for Japanese animation
    • A transformation occurs when a mecha character, vehicle, or weapon unfolds and reassembles itself in a totally new form.
  • * 2006 , Dani Cavallaro, The animé art of Hayao Miyazaki
    • Porco Rosso evinces a deep fascination with mechanical objects of all sorts but it is by no means a mecha movie...
  • * 2007 , Frenchy Lunning, Mechademia 2: Networks of Desire
    • Each week the good guys fight the bad guys and vanquish them in a mecha battle, only to have the bad guys reappear intact the following week.
  • * 2007 , Robin E. Brenner, Understanding manga and anime (page 170)
  • * 2011 , Kensuke Okabayashi, Manga For Dummies (page 275)
    • In this section, I show you mechas that are large enough to be piloted by humans from the inside. Although most of them are designed for combat, some function as transportation or construction mechas.

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