mastery

1 great skillfulness and knowledge of some subject or activity; "a good command of French" [syn: command, control]

2 power to dominate or defeat; "mastery of the seas" [syn: domination, supremacy]

3 the act of mastering or subordinating someone [syn: subordination]

English

Etymology

From Old French maistrie.

Noun

mastery

1. The position or authority of a master; dominion; command; supremacy; superiority.

   If divided by mountains, they will fight for the mastery of the passages of the tops. Sir W. Raleigh.

2. Superiority in war or competition; victory; triumph; preeminence.

   The voice of them that shout for mastery. Exodus. xxxii. 18.

   Every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. 1 Corinthians. ix. 25.

   O, but to have gulled him Had been a mastery. B. Jonson.

3. (obsolete) Contest for superiority. Holland.
4. (obsolete) A masterly operation; a feat.

   I will do a maistrie ere I go. Chaucer.

5. (obsolete) Specifically, the philosopher's stone.
6. The act or process of mastering; the state of having mastered.

   He could attain to a mastery in all languages. Tillotson.

   The learning and mastery of a tongue, being unpleasant in itself, should not be cumbered with other difficulties. Locke.

Translations

• Dutch: meesterschap
• Finnish: määräysvalta (1)
• German: Meisterschaft
• Greek: αυθεντία (afthentia) , υπεροχή (uperohḗ)
• Spanish: maestría

Master (a man having control or authority) or Masters may refer to:

• Guru, a teacher in Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism.
• Maestro, a skilled, usually non-academic, instructor, as in Dance Master, Music Master, Fencing Master, Drawing Master etc.
• Master (BDSM), honorific some people use to describe the dominant partner in a relationship.
• Master (form of address), a title.
• Master craftsman, a fully qualified artisan or craftsman, originally as rank in a guild.
• Masters of the Ancient Wisdom, beings believed in Theosophy to constitute the Spiritual Hierarchy of Earth (also called the Great White Brotherhood).
• Sensei, a Japanese title used to refer to authority figures.
• Slavemaster, a person who manages slaves.

Arts and entertainment

• Old Master, certain esteemed European painters who worked before 1800
  • Old master print, a print made by the Old Masters
• Master (band), an American death metal band.
• Master (Russian band), a Russian thrash metal band.
• The Master, a Doctor Who villain
• Master (Doctor Who audio), a Doctor Who audio drama.
• Master recording, the original of a visual and/or sound recording, which is then mixed and/or cut into a template from which distributable copies are made.
• Master Hand, a video game character from Super Smash Brothers and other games.
• Master class, a class given in a particular discipline by an expert in that discipline.
• Masters (The Tripods), a fictional race of beings in John Christopher's The Tripods trilogy.
• Master (film), a 1997 Telugu-language film
• The Master (film), a 1989 Hong Kong action/adventure film.

Sport

• Masters Tournament, one of golf's four major championships
• Masters Cup (disc golf), an annual event on the disc golf PDGA tour
• Master of Sports of the USSR, a Soviet sports rank
• Masters (snooker), a snooker tournament
• Masters athletics (track and field), the category reserved for competition among older athletes, the name of the category for keeping world records for these athletes, and a term for the competitors themselves
• Masters football, a football league in Britain contested by retired footballing legends.
• Chess master, a particularly skilled chess player
  • FIDE Master, International Master, and International Grandmaster, etc.
• Tennis Masters Cup, a tennis tournament
• Ultimate Masters of Formula 3, an international Formula 3 race at Circuit Park Zandvoort
• Swimming Masters, Swimming Championships
• Magnolia Beverage Masters, Philippine basketball
• Tanduay Rhum Masters, defunct Philippine basketball team
• In bodybuilding, Masters is an aged-related competitive classification, usually referring to a competitor aged 40-49.

Ranks and titles

• Master (judiciary), a low (or lowest, in some jurisdictions) rank of judge or judicial official
• Master (Peerage of Scotland), the male heir-apparent or heir-presumptive to a title in the Peerage of Scotland
• Master Aircrew, the highest non-commissioned rank held by aircrew in the Royal Air Force, equivalent to Warrant Officer in other branches
• Master Cadet, the highest non-commissioned rank within the Sea Cadet Corps of the New Zealand Cadet Forces.
• Master Corporal, an appointment of Corporal in the army and air force elements of the Canadian Forces
• Master craftsman, a member of a guild
• Master Driver, a Warrant Officer appointment in the British Army's Royal Logistic Corps
• Master Gunner, a Warrant Officer appointment in the British Army's Royal Artillery
• Master Mariner, the official title of someone qualified to command a ship, a nautical captain.
• Master Seaman, an appointment of Leading Seaman in the navy element of the Canadian Forces
• Master Sergeant, a non-commissioned officer rank in the Singapore Armed Forces and the United States Air Force, Army, and Marine Corps
• Master tradesman, a person who has a greater level of skill than most in the licensed trades
• Master Warrant Officer, the second highest non-commissioned rank in the army and air force elements of the Canadian Forces.
• Master-at-arms, a naval police officer, often addressed as "Master" in the Royal Navy
• Special master, a quasi-judicial legal officer
• Master or Worshipful Master, the presiding officer of a Masonic Lodge
• Sailing Master, the warrant officer responsible for the navigation and steering of a sailing vessel during the Age of Sail.
• Jedi master, a rank in the fictional Star Wars Jedi Order

Education

• Master, traditional title of the head teacher of some colleges of the universities of Cambridge, Durham, and Oxford.
• Master's degree, a graduate or sometimes undergraduate degree in a specified discipline.
• Master of the United College, the head of the United College at the University of St Andrews.
• The Masters School, an independent school in New York.
• Schoolmaster, a male school teacher. This usage survives in British public schools, but is generally obsolete elsewhere.
• Headmaster, the most senior teacher in a school (British usage).
• Master of the Children, for the choir boys.
• Mastery education, the belief that students must demonstrate mastery of basic material before advancing

Proper names

Surname

The surname Masters is of Norman origin and it is thought that it is probably an anglicized form of the French Maystres, Maystre, or Maistre.

• Charles Harcourt Masters (b.1759), British surveyor and architect in Bath, Somerset
• Chris Mordetzky, American professional wrestler, better known by his stage name Chris Masters
• Edgar Lee Masters (1869-1950), an American poet
• Ian Masters (songwriter)
• Ian Masters (broadcaster)
• Ian Masters (journalist)
• John Masters (1914–1983), an English soldier and novelist
• Mark Masters, an American radio company owner
• Maxwell T. Masters, British botanist
• Roy Masters (radio presenter), a British-born American talk radio personality
• Roy Masters (sport), an Australian rugby league coach, sport administrator and sports journalist
• William Masters (1915-2001), an American gynecologist and sexologist

Other

• Masters and Johnson, sexologists
• Master of Puppets, an album by Metallica, often referred to as simply Master
• Masters of Deception, a hacker group
• Masters of reality Black Sabbath album
• The Puppet Masters, a story
• Masters of the Universe, a television cartoon
• The Dancing Wu Li Masters
• Master Lock, importer of padlocks, combination locks, and security products
• Master Bomber, a military commander in an aircraft who directs a bombing attack (e.g., Operation Bellicose and Operation Hydra in World War II).

Other uses

• Gangmaster, a person who provides workers for agricultural purposes.
• Master-slave (technology), one device controlling the operation of other devices.
• Master, the original of a document or other copied item.
• Master recording, the original of a recording.
• Master Bates, an infamous slavemaster who murdered 1000 slaves before the Civil War.

See also

• The Master (disambiguation)
• Meister (surname)
• Mistress
• Mister
• Grand master

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