the.com/schoolmaster
A man paid to make children sit still while their minds wander anyway.
means A man who teaches and runs a school, especially in charge of discipline and lessons alike.
from A straightforward compound from Old English/Middle English roots — 'school' (ultimately from Greek 'skhole', meaning leisure or a place where leisure was spent in discussion, ironically) plus 'master' (from Latin 'magister', one who is greater, a director or chief). The two fused in Middle English to name the man who ran the schoolroom — master of the school, and often master of the cane too.
- origin era
- term dates to medieval grammar schools, 14th century
- etymology
- literally just school plus master, no mystery there
- faded title
- replaced by headmaster, then by anxious committees
- literary trope
- usually caning someone in Dickens or Brontë novels