Etching does not necessarily have a "machine-made" connotation. In traditional etching as done in artworks (Would you like to come upstairs and see my etchings?) the design (picture or pattern) is cu through a wax or resist using an etching needle and the item dunked in acid which eats away at the metal where the needle has pierced thru the resist. Both Rembrandt and the American artist Whistler were etchers.
There is a qualitative difference in the appearance of an etched vs an engraved line which in artwork make it relatively easy to distinguish between the two.
