masterlinessn.
/ˈmɑːstəlɪnᵻs/, /ˈmastəlɪnᵻs/, U.S. /ˈmæstərlinᵻs/ The quality or fact of being masterly.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > ability > skill or skilfulness > [noun] > skill or knowledge > mastery
mastery?1316
maistricec1390
mastership1559
masterliness1653
mastercraft1707
mistress-ship1819
masterhood1875
maestria1876
1653 T. Cobbet Brief Answer Pamphlet 52 They joined him to themselves,..for his censoriousness, and masterliness.
1721 R. Wodrow Corr. (1843) II. 590 He can lay claim to little masterliness in eloquence, who knows not how to handle his subject elegantly.
1838 J. Sterling Ess. & Tales (1848) I. 245 The thorough masterliness of the style.
1865 Church Times 21 Oct. 332/2 Lord Palmerston..submitted his natural good judgement to the pretended masterliness of him with the phylacteries.
1881 C. S. Smith tr. Gretti's Saga xxv, in New Englander (New Haven, Connecticut) Jan. 52 In all the land there was not the like of Gretti Ásmundarson in might and daring, and in all masterliness.
1894 Cent. Mag. Dec. 208/2 Crispi has the fidelity and the individuality belonging to his Skipetar blood..; Bismarck, the overweening masterliness of his Prussian stock.
1933 Amer. Mercury May p. xxxii (advt.) In these twelve years he had brought to an amazing masterliness the idea of epic prose composition as a ‘thought-texture woven of different themes’.
1985 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 7 July vii. 1/1 Imperially equipped for masterliness in range, language and ironic penetration.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2001; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
<
n.1653