Etymologically
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masterpiece

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 22 October 2026 at 21:17. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈmɑːstəˌpiːs/[1]
  • US: /ˈmæstɚˌpis/[1]

Etymology

It is a compound from English master + piece,[2][3][4][5] probably modelled on Dutch meesterstuk or German Meisterstück,[2][6][7][8] which named the piece of work by which a craftsman qualified for the rank of master in his guild.[3][8] Klein takes it as a loan translation of the German word alone.[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

A work of outstanding skill, especially an artist's or writer's greatest: 1600, in the play The Wisdom of Doctor Dodypoll.[2][7][3] Dictionary.com dates the word earlier, to 1570–80.[5]

Semantic evolution

The guild sense of the Dutch and German words is the first sense in Merriam-Webster Unabridged,[7] but in English the general sense of supreme skill is recorded first.[2] From 1607, in Ben Jonson's Volpone, it could be a person's greatest achievement,[2] and Shakespeare's Macbeth has "Confusion now hath made his masterpiece".[4] From 1612 to 1703 it also meant the chief excellence of a person or thing.[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as "any thing done or made with extraordinary skill".[10] From 1648 it could be any remarkable person or thing, a use now colloquial and regional:[2] in the dialects of Yorkshire, East Anglia, Devon and Cornwall a masterpiece was anything surprising or wonderful, and in West Yorkshire also a self-willed person.[11] In 19th-century Australian criminal slang it was a skeleton key.[12]

Timeline

  • 1570–80 – the date Dictionary.com gives.[5]
  • 1600 – a work of outstanding skill.[2][7]
  • 1607 – a person's greatest achievement, in Jonson.[2]
  • 1612 – the chief excellence of something (obsolete by 1703).[2]
  • 1648 – a remarkable person or thing.[2]
  • 1865 – (Australian slang) a skeleton key.[12]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A work of outstanding artistry or skill: The old bridge is a masterpiece of Victorian engineering.
  2. The greatest work of an artist, writer or craftsman.
  3. An outstanding example of something: a masterpiece of tact.
  4. (historical) A piece of work presented to a guild by a craftsman to qualify as a master.
  5. (dialect) Something surprising or wonderful.

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  7. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  8. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  11. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  12. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com