mastery

noun

Etymology: From Middle English maistery, maistrie, mastere, mastry, from Old French maistrie, equivalent to master + -y.

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.”

   “The desert storm was riding in its strength; the travellers lay beneath the mastery of the fell simoom. Whirling wreaths and columns of burning wind, rushed around and over them.”

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

   “They were faire Ladies, till they fondly ſtriu’d / With th’Heliconian maides for mayſtery; / Of whom they ouer-comen, were depriu’d / Of their proud beautie, and th’one moyity / Transform’d to fiſh, for their bold ſurquedry, / But th’vpper halfe their hew retayned ſtill, / And their ſweet skill in wonted melody; / Which euer after they abuſd to ill, / T’allure weake traueillers, whom gotten they did kill.”

   “The voice of them that shout for mastery.”

3. The act or process of mastering; the state of having mastered; expertise.

   “He […]could attain to a mastery in all languages.”

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

4. A contest for superiority.

   “[…] pastimes of wrestling, and like maſteries betweene the Citizens of London and others of the Suburbes […]”

   “Rury has given the word for some rare sport — a bout of games and masteries between me and Marcos Serkman to prove which is the better man.”

5. A masterly operation; a feat.

   “Ye welsh men..brake out vpon the Englysshe men in ye Bordour..and there made masteryes for a whyle.”

   “That ye maye knowe..what masteryes they haue played.”

6. The philosopher's stone.