meestern.
/ˈmɪəstə/, /ˈmiːstə/, U.S. /ˈmistər/, South African English /ˈmɪəstə/ South African.
1.
a. A resident tutor hired by rural families; an itinerant schoolmaster. Also with modifying word, as school-meester. Now historical.
ΚΠ
1798 A. Barnard in Ld. Lindsay Lives of Lindsays (1849) III. 439 Here was another civil schoolmaster, the tutor of the yonge vrow... The good meister gave us some of his private bottle of punch.
1824 W. J. Burchell Trav. II. 114 This meester..(that is; schoolmeester, or schoolmaster) considered it part of his profession..to let every person know the extent of his acquirements.
1829 C. Rose Four Years S. Afr. 254 The Meester deserves a separate notice. The tutor, who teaches the ingenuous youth of Southern Africa, is generally a discharged English soldier, and leads a kind of middle life, a connecting link between the family and the slaves.
1883 M. A. Carey-Hobson Farm in Karoo 186 The Meester's salary is paid in sheep.
1912 F. Bancroft Veldt Dwellers 60 The men were..both educated by the same worthy pedagogue—the broken-down-gentleman school-meester—speaking both the taal and English with equal fluency.
1958 R. E. Lighton Out of Strong 46 ‘It must be a good thing to be on the school committee.’ ‘Not always... It's that way if the other members and the meester are reasonable people.’
1990 Sunday Times (Johannesburg) 25 Mar. 5/3 The..English girl arrives in the village like a blackboard bombshell... But she wins their respect and sparks a romance with their Meester.
b. As a form of address, or in referring to a teacher. Also as a title.
ΚΠ
1943 I. Frack S. Afr. Doctor 107 The farmer is so taken up with his own troubles that he leaves everything to ‘Meester’... The teacher's training is provided free.
1944 ‘Twede in Bevel’ Piet Kolonel 120 ‘Meester’ Cilliers, ex-schoolmaster, was a great find as lecturer.
1980 E. Joubert Poppie Nongena 20 The teacher, Meester Riet, came to school on his bicycle.
1990 C. Laffeaty Far Forbidden Plains 47 It was Meester who taught at the farm school which had been established four years ago.
2. A doctor. Now historical.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > healing > healer > physician > [noun]
physician?c1225
leecherc1374
practiserc1387
doctora1400
flesh-leecha1400
leechman14..
mediciner?a1425
miria1425
M.D.1425
medicine?c1450
practitioner?1543
minister1559
doc1563
artist1565
medicus1570
medicianera1578
Aesculapius1586
Dra1593
pisspot1592
medician1597
physicianer1598
medicinary1599
pisspot1600
velvet-cap1602
healer1611
Galena1616
physiner1616
clyster1621
clyster-pipe1622
hakim1623
medic1625
practicant1630
medico1647
physicker1649
physicster1689
Aesculapian1694
nim-gimmer1699
pill-monger1706
medical man1784
meester1812
medical1823
pill-gilder1824
therapeutist1830
pill1835
pill roller1843
med1851
pill-peddler1855
therapeutic1858
squirt1859
medicine man1866
pill pusher1879
therapist1886
doser1888
internist1894
pill-shooter1911
whitecoat1911
quack1919
vet1925
1812 A. Plumptre tr. H. Lichtenstein Trav. S. Afr. I. 88 The Dutch ship surgeons are called in the sailor's language meester, (master) and this term, with many others used by the sailors, has been adopted as the language in common use among the colonists.
1958 E. H. Burrows Hist. Med. S. Afr. 19 Apart from the guild surgeons and the doctoren..there were also lesser types of practitioners abroad in the countryside... The operateurs, the itinerant meesters who made a living by removing gravel and operating for cataract or hare-lip.
1972 N. Sapeika in Standard Encycl. Southern Afr. VII. 303 The popularity of patent medicines inland, and the earlier activities of the ‘wonderdoeners’, ‘meesters’, and itinerant ‘doctors’ who travelled among the Trek Boers.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, June 2001; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1798