Master: Encyclopedia - Master

Master

Master is a term that indicates a consummate level of skill, proficiency, superiority or power (mastery). The female equivalent (in limited use in modern times) is mistress. The term has a number of uses:

• Master (form of address).
• Master (Peerage of Scotland), the male heir-apparent or heir-presumptive to a title in the Peerage of Scotland.
• A term once used to describe the male head of a household or a male property owner in some contexts.
• Master's degree, a graduate degree in a specified discipline from a college or university (except in some British universities, where it can be an undergraduate degree).
• A spiritual teacher, guide or guru.
• Master craftsman, a person who has a high level of skill in a craft or art form. Traditionally it applied to a craftsman who had completed an apprenticeship and set up in business on his own account.
• Master tradesman, a person who is fully qualified in a licensed trade. This is usually granted following instruction, testing and a period of practical experience.
• The Masters Tournament, one of golf's four major championships.
• Masters Cup, an annual event on the disc golf PDGA tour.
• Masters (snooker), a snooker tournament.
• Tennis Masters Cup, a tennis tournament.
• Masters League Football, a soccer league in Britain contested by retired footballing legends.
• The title above black belt in Korean martial arts, which allows the holder to operate a school (dojang). A higher rank is grandmaster.
• Chess master, a particularly skilled chess player.
  • FIDE Master, International Master, and International Grandmaster, ranks in international chess.
  • National Master and Senior Master, ranks in United States chess. A player who has played 300 games as a National Master is designated a Life Master.
• Master unit, a mechanical or electronic unit which commands or controls another unit, so that they work in tandem or in parallel.
• Another name for a slaveholder.
• Master (BDSM), a man who takes a dominant role in BDSM.
• Master Aircrew, the highest non-commissioned rank held by aircrew in the Royal Air Force, equivalent to Warrant Officer in other branches.
• 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 Mariner.
• Schoolmaster, a male school teacher. This usage survives in British public schools, but is generally obsolete elsewhere.
• A skilled (usually non-academic) instructor, as in Dance Master, Music Master, Fencing Master, Drawing Master, etc. This use is rare today, but survives in maestro.
• The title of the heads of certain colleges at Oxford and Cambridge universities.
• Master of the United College, the head of the United College at the University of St Andrews.
• Part of the master/slave configuration in Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA).
• Master (band), an American death metal band.
• Masters (athletics), 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.
• Master table, in database development, a table that is on the one side of a one-to-many relationship.
• Master view, in database development, a view that combines any and all base tables to represent all possible columns and rows for an entity.
• Master (law), a quasi-judicial legal officer who is appointed by a court for a limited purpose (such as to adjudicate discovery disputes in a complex case) or is permanently employed to conduct non-adjudicative proceedings such as arraignments, mediations, or the like.

See also

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Master", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki