Thread: Sheffield knifemaker mester

I'm sure the other posters are correct: the word-root is common to many anglo/saxon/teutonic languages. A "little mester" is sheffield dialect word for a master craftsman practising his trade on a small scale though. Just out of interest, here are a few more old sheffield trade words, courtesy of the the sheffieldforum.co.uk


Bull Week – The week before Christmas when cutlers "bulled" at work – worked overtime or made an extra effort at work to earn extra money.

Chavel – To chew or fray a rope or band

Click howd – To catch hold of anything.

Clout – a cloth used for wiping knives clean.

Choil – depart in a great hurry.

Cuckoos – Faulty work. When a man has faulty work returned he is greeted with cries of “cuckoo” from his mates.

Dollop – a lot, large number of articles.

Gobbed-on – Soldered on; The expression is said to arisen because men used to spit (gob) on an article frequently as they soldered it; but it may also be a term of contempt indicating that it may just be stuck together with spit.

Kelt – money.

Knobstick – a blackleg or non-union workman, also a man who hadn’t served an apprenticeship.

Little Mester – a Master Cutler working on his own.

Rammel – refuse of any kind.

Skerrick - a morsel of something.

Regards,
Neil