Workmanship

How to spell workmanship

11 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce workmanship

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does workmanship mean?

1. nounThe skill and quality shown in how something has been made or done.

Workmanship in a sentence

• The antique cabinet showed the fine workmanship of a master carpenter.

• Poor workmanship caused the new roof to leak within a month.

Where does workmanship come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a thoroughly native English word, built entirely from Old English and Germanic roots rather than borrowed from Latin or French. The core element 'work' comes from Old English 'weorc', meaning labour or a deed, and is related to the Greek 'ergon' that survives in 'energy'. To this was joined 'man', from Old English 'mann' meaning a person, and the abstract suffix '-ship', from Old English '-scipe', which turns a word into the name of a state, quality, or skill, just as it does in 'friendship' and 'hardship'. The combined form 'workmanship' appears in English by the fifteenth century, first describing the act of working and soon settling into its modern meaning: the skill or quality with which something has been made. Because it is a simple chain of familiar parts, the only real spelling trap is remembering that it is one solid word with 'man' tucked unstressed in the middle.

How the word is built

• work (labour, craft)
• man (person)
• -ship (state or quality suffix)