master

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   an artist of consummate skill

   a master of the violin

2. 2
   verb

   be or become completely proficient or skilled in

   The student has mastered Japanese in less than two years.

3. 3
   verb

   have dominance or the power to defeat over

   The pain completely mastered me.

4. 4
   noun

   Someone who has control over something or someone.

   We are masters of the sea.

5. 5
   noun

   The captain of a merchant ship; a master mariner.

   Master at two-and-twenty, and married at twenty-three—

6. 6
   noun

   Someone who employs others.

   No matter how early I came down, I would find him on the veranda, smoking cigarettes, or otherwise his man would be there with a message to say that his master would shortly join me if I would kindly wait.

7. 7
   noun

   An expert at something.

   Mark Twain was a master of fiction.

8. 8
   noun

   A man or a boy; mister. See Master.

   Where there are little Maſters and Miſſes in a Houſe, they are uſually great Impediments to the Diverſions of the Servants;

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *meǵh₂-der.? Proto-Indo-European *meh₂-der.? Proto-Italic *magisteros Latin magister, magistrum Old French maistrebor. ▲ Latin magisterder. Old English mǣġester Middle English maister English master From Middle English maister, mayster, meister (noun) and maistren (verb), from Old English mǣster, mæġster, mæġester, mæġister, magister (“master”), from Latin magister (“chief, teacher, leader”), from Old Latin magester, from Proto-Indo-European *méǵh₂s (as in magnus (“great”), also cognate of English much and mickle) + -ester/-ister (compare minister (“servant”)…