“ Some British universities give a master’s degree in surgery, magister chirurgiae, C.M. or M.Ch., and also in science, magister scientiae, M.Sc. The academic use of “master” as the title of the head of certain colleges at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge is to be referred to the frequent application of the term to the holder of a presiding office in an institution.
Master was the usual prefix of address to a man’s name, though originally confined to people of some social standing. ”