Meister 930492 223634070 2008-07-05T00:17:19Z Lightbot 7178666 Units/dates/other {{About|the loanword|people whose family name is or was Meister|Meister (surname)|The Transformer|Jazz (Transformers)}} The word '''''meister''''' originally means "master" in [[German language|German]] (as in [[master craftsman]] or as an honorific title such as [[Meister Eckhart]]; akin to [[maestro]]). It has been borrowed into [[English language|English]] [[slang]], where it is used in [[compound (linguistics)|compound]] words. These [[neologism]]s mostly have a [[sarcastic]] intent (for example, "stubblemeister" for someone with a short neat beard; heard on [[BBC]] TV; or [[concertmeister]], leader of a symphony). In compound words such as ''[[Wachtmeister]]'' or ''Polizeimeister'', the word meister has also been used as a [[police]] rank of [[Germany]] with the first usage dating to the 19th century. Many modern day German police forces use variations of the title Meister. During the [[Second World War]], Meister was the highest enlisted rank of the [[Ordnungspolizei]]. Meister had a recent resurgence in American popular culture with two characters. The first, "The Rich-meister," portrayed by [[Rob Schneider]] on [[Saturday Night Live]], added meister (among other words) as a suffix to the names of his coworkers for comical effect. More recently, the character Stifler from [[American Pie (movie)|American Pie]] referred to himself as "The Stif-meister", in an attempt to portray his high self-confidence. The usage of meister in American Pie likely dates back to the Saturday Night Live usage. It is also often used in referring to [[Formula One]] driver [[Michael Schumacher]] as ''Der Regenmeister'' (the rain master) due to his highly-rated driving through low-visibility or wet conditions. It has also recently been used in the anime ''[[Gundam 00]]'' referring to the pilots of the [[Gundam]]s as Gundam Meisters. [[Category:German loanwords]] [[Category:Yiddish words and phrases]]