Meister

Forms

Meister m (genitive Meisters, plural Meister, feminine Meisterin)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German meister, inherited from Old High German meistar, borrowed from Latin magister (“master, chief, teacher”), borrowed in the 8th century, as was Old English magister.^[2][3][4] The EWA says it came through Vulgar Latin or Old French, and Wiktionary reconstructs Proto-West Germanic *maistar, from Vulgar Latin *maester.^[5][1] The Grimms' dictionary explains the loss of the inner g by the German stress on the first syllable; early Old High German texts still have the unreduced Latin form.^[6] Old Saxon mēstar was borrowed in the same way, and the word is also Dutch meester, English master, French maître and Swedish mästare.^[2][3][6] Magister is a later, learned borrowing of the same Latin word, and Maestro a modern one from Italian.^[2][5]

Köbler connects the Latin word with magis (“more”).^[7] The Frankish court used the Latin word as a title of high officials after the Roman model, and the Church found it in the Vulgate as the translation of Greek words for “teacher”, which Gothic rendered with a native word, Gothic 𐌻𐌰𐌹𐍃𐌰𐍂𐌴𐌹𐍃 (laisareis).^[6][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German meistar is recorded from 765 in glosses and is frequent in Tatian, Otfrid and Notker.^[7][9] It meant a teacher (also translating rabbi and used of Christ), a learned man, an artist or master builder, a craftsman, and a leader or ruler.^[5][10][8]

Semantic evolution

In the early Middle Ages it named someone who mastered and perhaps taught an art or science, and also an official in charge of some department, as in Bürgermeister, Hofmeister and Jägermeister.^[8] The sense now most usual, a master craftsman of a guild, developed in the late Middle Ages.^[8][11] The Meistersinger, the guild poets of the late medieval towns, took their name from it.^[8]

Used loosely, it means someone who is perfect at something or who has power over something: seinen Meister finden is to meet one's superior, and einer Sache Meister werden to master it.^[8][12] The sporting sense “champion” is modern.^[12][1] German Meister was borrowed into Hungarian (majszter, 1611, hopmester, a church official, 1408), Polish majster, Slovene mojster and English meister.^[13][1]

Timeline

• 765 – Old High German meistar appears in glosses.^[7]
• c. 1000 – The feminine meistarinna and the abstract meistarscaft are recorded.^[3]
• 2nd half of the 13th century – Meistersang names the art of the masters of song.^[8]
• 1408 – Hungarian hopmester is borrowed from German.^[13]
• 16th century – Meisterstück names a craftsman's masterpiece for the guild examination.^[3]
• 17th century – meisterhaft “masterly” is formed.^[3][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A master craftsman who has passed the master's examination in a trade; also a foreman in charge of a section in a firm.^[12][1]
2. An expert, someone very skilled in a field or an art: ein Meister der Sprache.^[12][1]
3. A great artist, especially in painting and music: die alten Meister.^[12]
4. (formal) A revered teacher or religious leader, as seen by his pupils or followers.^[12]
5. (sports) A champion, the winner of a championship.^[12][1]

Word family

• Meisterin
• meisterhaft
• meisterlich
• meistern
• Meisterschaft
• Meisterstück
• Bürgermeister
• Meistersinger

Related words

• Magister
• Magistrat
• Maestro
• English master

Usage notes

Übung macht den Meister “practice makes perfect” and es ist noch kein Meister vom Himmel gefallen “no one is born a master” are proverbs.^[8][12] Früh übt sich, was ein Meister werden will is a line from Schiller's Wilhelm Tell.^[12] Paul notes that as a predicate without the article the word comes close to an adjective, so that Schiller could write daß wir über eine Leidenschaft Meister werden with a plural subject.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 613
3. ^ a b c d e Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
4. ^ a b Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 546
5. ^ a b c Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 6, 261
6. ^ a b c Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 12, 1952
7. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
9. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 219
10. ^ Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch (1952–), founded by Elisabeth Karg-Gasterstädt and Theodor Frings, Sächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag / De Gruyter; online awb.saw-leipzig.de
11. ^ Anderson, Robert R.; Goebel, Ulrich; Reichmann, Oskar, eds. (1989–), Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; FWB-online, fwb-online.de
12. ^ a b c d e f g h i Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
13. ^ a b Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de