menester

Catalan

Alternative forms

Etymology

Inherited from Latin ministerium. Short form mester via Vulgar Latin *misterium (compare French métier).

Pronunciation

Noun

menester m (plural menesters)

  1. office, occupation
    Synonyms: ofici, ocupació
  2. necessity, duty
    ser menester (de/que …)to be necessary
    és menester (d')anarit's necessary to go
    és menester que mengisit's necessary that you eat

Derived terms

  • haver de menester (to need)

Further reading

Spanish

Etymology

Inherited from Old Spanish menester, mester, inherited from Latin ministerium, with an irregular loss of the expected final -o. Coromines and Pascual explain this loss as due to being commonly found in the phrase es menester que, triggering syncope between -ter(o) and que, also arguing against the possibility of an Occitan borrowing due to the word being of "popular" semantics and being found early and in all kinds of texts. Doublet of ministerio.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /menesˈteɾ/ [me.nesˈt̪eɾ]
  • Rhymes: -eɾ
  • Syllabification: me‧nes‧ter

Noun

menester m (plural menesteres)

  1. something necessary, requirement, must
    Es menester que actuemos con prontitud.
    It is necessary for us to act swiftly.
    Era menester apaciguarlos.
    Appeasing them was a must.
  2. (in the plural) duty
    los menesteres del hogarhousehold duties

Derived terms

Further reading

This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.