"From a book I'm reading: "None of this means that the Middle Ages had failed to diffuse advances in practical knowledge, but this effort was restricted by their institutions. The guilds of artisans kept the tricks of the trade secret; they were valuable property, as are today patents and copyrights. By an unconcious pun, the French for craft - métier- was thought (erroneously) to be derived from mistère(= mystery)." -

I looked up the closest easy to find etymology of metier adn found:

1792, from Fr. métier "trade, profession," from O.Fr. mestier, from Gallo-Romance *misterium, from L. ministerium "office, service," from minister "servant" (see minister).

It seems to me that métier coming from *misterium is more plausible than it coming from L. ministerium in spite of what the author of the book says. More likely the English, only starting to use it from 1792 connected it to "office".

Last edited by BranShea; 01/29/2012 8:47 PM.