bricoleur · noun — A person who constructs bricolages; one who creates using whatever materials are available. It carries an Arena rating of 1632, earned across 3 head-to-head judged battles.
Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, bricoleur ranks #2,539 of 17,146 for Most Storied Words, #3,346 of 17,205 for The Improbable, #3,825 of 17,201 for Funniest Words, #4,426 of 17,165 for Most Satisfying to Say.
Why “bricoleur” is a great word
A resourceful individual who achieves practical ends through the ad hoc, opportunistic use of a heterogeneous collection of tools, materials, and skills. From French bricoleur ("handyman, one who tinkers"), from bricoler ("to putter about, to do odd jobs"), of uncertain ultimate origin, perhaps from Italian briccola; the specific anthropological sense was popularized in the work of French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss in the 1960s. Unlike the craftsman, who works with formal, dedicated tools toward a premeditated design, or the engineer, who builds from first principles and blueprints, the bricoleur operates within a closed, finite universe of the already-given—the scrap lumber in the shed, the spare parts in the drawer, the odd skills picked up along the way. It is the fence mended with a twist of wire and a broken rake handle, the software bug fixed with a forgotten snippet of code, the meal conjured from the week’s forgotten groceries. This is the poetry of necessity: making do, and in making do, making new.
❧ Essay by Lexicurio’s AI · definition, etymology & citations from published sources
Etymology
From French bricoleur; apparently a borrowing from the work of French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss.
noun
- A person who constructs bricolages; one who creates using whatever materials are available.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.