mestre

Forms

mestre m (plural mestres, feminine mestra, feminine plural mestras)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote maestre, maestro and meestre;^[2][3][4] mester and mestre appear in the 15th century.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin magister (“one who commands or directs; teacher”), written Old Galician-Portuguese maestre and Old Galician-Portuguese meestre in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1] Houaiss thinks the form was probably shaped by Old French maistre or Old Occitan maestre, as the archaic forms with final /e/ seem to show;^[2][5][6] Nascentes and Aurélio take the word from Spanish maestre or the Old French word, through the old form with ⟨ee⟩.^[2][5][6] Wiktionary gives both views: from the Latin accusative through the Occitan or Old Catalan maestre, or directly from the Latin nominative.^[1] Nascentes reports in his longer dictionary that Nunes, Leite de Vasconcelos and Otoniel Mota see French or Occitan origin in the final /e/, while Menéndez Pidal prefers the nominative, owing to the word's use in the Latin of the chancery.^[7] The DLP derives it from the Latin word through the French one.^[8]

The same Latin word is Galician mestre, Spanish maestro, Catalan mestre, French maître, Italian maestro and Romanian maestru.^[9][1] Corominas takes the Spanish variant with final /e/ from Catalan and Occitan.^[10] The Latin noun is formed from magis (“more”) with the suffix -ter, in contrast with minister;^[11][1] Wiktionary gives Proto-Italic *magisteros.^[11][1] Portuguese also has a learned doublet in the Latin form, and the borrowing maestro.^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lorenzo's chronology has o maestre do Templo “the Master of the Temple” in the testament of Afonso II of 1214, and maestre de Carualo torto in 1257.^[4] Houaiss's first date is 1255, with the sense “learned man, teacher”, and he records maestre “commander” in the 13th century.^[2] Viterbo quotes a Latin deed of gift that calls an abbot magistrum meum “my master”, and notes that documents of the 12th and 13th centuries style confessors masters.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The medieval language already used the word for a skilled craftsman (maestres pedreiros “master masons” in the Cantigas de Santa Maria), the master of a ship, a physician, the holder of a university title, a teacher in the schools, and the head of a military order.^[4][13] Barbosa (1611) lists mestre de campo, mestre das ceremonias, mestre da nao and mestre de Santiago.^[14] Dalgado notes that mestre formerly also meant “physician”, as doutor does now, and that several Portuguese-based creoles of Asia, such as those of Ceylon and Macau, use it for a healer.^[15]

Modern senses include the holder of a master's degree, an artist who led a workshop, the third degree in freemasonry, a non-commissioned officer at sea, and, in north-eastern Brazil, the leader of a folk-dance group or a good musician.^[2][16] Wiktionary traces Hindi मिस्त्री (mistrī) and other words of South Asian languages for an artisan to the Portuguese word.^[1]

Timeline

• 1214 – o maestre do Templo in the testament of Afonso II.^[4]
• 1255 – maestre “learned man, teacher”.^[2]
• 13th century – meestre and the sense “commander”.^[2][3]
• 1291 – ffrey affonsso mestre de Brion, an early record of the spelling mestre.^[4]
• 1431 – mestre in the Vida do honrado Infante Josafat.^[17]
• 15th century – the sense “academic title”.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses mestre as Latin ludi magister “schoolmaster”.^[18]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists mestre de campo and mestre de Santiago.^[14]
• 1687 – Fernão de Queirós uses mestre for a healer in Ceylon.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person of outstanding knowledge or skill in a science or art; a master: um mestre da pintura.^[2][6][1]
2. A teacher, one who gives lessons at a school or privately.^[2][19]
3. The holder of a master's degree (mestrado).^[2][8][1]
4. A craftsman in relation to his journeymen and apprentices: mestre carpinteiro.^[2][20]
5. The founder or leader of a school or movement; a spiritual guide, mentor.^[2][21]
6. (history) The head of a military order: o mestre de Avis.^[2]
7. (freemasonry) A mason of the third degree.^[2][19]
8. (nautical) A senior petty officer who directs the seamen's work on board; the skipper of a small merchant vessel.^[2][20]
9. (north-eastern Brazil) The leader of a folk-dance group; a title given to a good musician, especially an accordion player.^[2][16]
10. Anything that teaches a lesson: a experiência é um bom mestre.^[22][19]

Adjective

1. Principal, chief; outstanding, excellent: a ideia mestra.^[8][23]

Word family

• amestrar
• amestrado
• contramestre
• mestrado
• mestrando
• mestria
• mestraço
• quartel-mestre
• mestre de obras

Related words

• magíster
• maestro
• Latin magister
• Galician mestre

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. mestre
3. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. mestre
4. ^ a b c d e f Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. maestre
5. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. mestre
6. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. mestre
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 329
8. ^ a b c Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. mestre
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5229
10. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. maestro
11. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. magister
12. ^ Viterbo, Joaquim de Santa Rosa de (1798–1799), Elucidario das palavras, termos e frases que em Portugal antiguamente se usárão, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 131
13. ^ Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. meestre
14. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. mestre
15. ^ a b Dalgado, Sebastião Rodolfo (1919–1921), Glossário luso-asiático, 2 vols., Coimbra: Imprensa da Universidade, p. 2, 52
16. ^ a b Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. mestre
17. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. mestre
18. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. mestre
19. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. mestre
20. ^ a b Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. mestre
21. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 6118
22. ^ Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. mestre
23. ^ Estraviz, Isaac Alonso, Dicionário Estraviz, https://estraviz.org, p. s.v. mestre