Query on the term *mistri*

[winnie fellows]

>>Would some kind listmember inform as to how the term *mistri* entered
>>into languages of the subcontinent.
>
>R. W. McGregor in his wonderful Oxford Hindi-English dictionary gives a
>Portuguese word (mestre) as the basis for the Hindi word, you may like to
>contact him for the source of that etymology.

>>>

Indeed the Portuguese * mestre* was quite in use during the XV and XVIth
centuries meaning the "master "or "maistre"of some craft, often in the
shipping and civil and military construction arts. It's use became later on
restrict to the educational
area where it was synonim for "teacher" and nowdays it's just honorific. I
believe
the Hindi "mistri" does indeed come from the Portuguese during their early
times in India..

JC
>