reverse engineer

[Victor Steinbok]

NOUN!

Yes, noun. OED has both the verb "reverse engineer" and the nominal
"reverse engineering" to 1957, so it's hard to say if the verb was
back-derived. But I've never seen the noun version for the person
performing "reverse engineering"... until now. A blurb in cable
programming description for the film Paycheck (2003) explains: "A
reverse-engineer accepts a project from a millionaire..."

I'm sure someone will come up with earlier examples, but a
"reverse-engineer" is just an engineer who does reverse engineering.
That's why that has not really been a need for a more narrow term.

VS-)

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org