@Bruce I remember when my father used to address letters to me as Master Richard Newman because I was still a boy and not yet a Mister. Now I wonder where that usage actually originated.

The question of whether the word has been so tainted by slavery that we ought not to use it is a complex one. Would it apply to the verb as well, the adjectival form, etc? I’m not trying to be pedantic, but it’s one thing to avoid it in situations where it actually conjures slavery—as in master and slave cylinders—and another to decide that this association delegitimizes other forms/usages. //@johnphilpin @simonwoods