mason
Other forms: masons
If you spent the summer building a beautiful stone wall around your backyard, you may have a future as a mason, someone who builds things out of brick or stone.
Usage experts can’t quite agree on the origins of the word mason. Some believe that it traces back to the German word mahhon, meaning "to make." True or not, it’s a good way to remember the meaning of mason: masons make things out of brick or stone. A mason is a skilled craftsperson who might, for example, carve stone for a memorial or do work on the brick walls of a house.
-
a craftsman who works with stone or bricksynonyms: stonemason
- MLA
- APA
- Chicago
Vocabulary lists containing mason
Here's a roundup of some common last names that originated in professions, trades, and other jobs — along with some notable people who bear them. If you have one of these last names, it's possible that one of your ancestors did this kind of work for a living.
People's first names have meaning in the sense that, when one is chosen from thousands of possibilities, it's usually picked because it has some special significance. But these names have another kind of meaning — they're also words that you can look up in the dictionary and use in other senses, beyond just what you've decided to call your pet parakeet or your first child.
When sixth-grader Grace inspires a new craze for collecting buttons at her school, she inadvertently starts a war with her best friend.