kapellmeister

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The Word of the Day for November 29 is:

kapellmeister   \kuh-PELL-my-ster\   noun 
     : the director of a choir or orchestra 

Example sentence: 
     Reverend Clayton was desperate -- the Christmas season was approaching and 
he still hadn't found a new kappellmeister.

Did you know? 
     As you may have guessed, "kapellmeister" originated as a German word -- 
and in fact, even in English it is often (though not always) used for the 
director of a German choir. "Kapelle" once meant "choir" in German and 
"Meister" is the German word for "master." The Latin "magister" is an ancestor 
of both "Meister" and "master," as well as of our "maestro," meaning "an 
eminent composer or conductor." "Kapelle" comes from "cappella," the Medieval 
Latin word for "chapel." As it happens, we also borrowed "kapelle" into 
English, first to refer to the choir or orchestra of a royal or papal chapel, 
and later to describe any orchestra. "Kapellmeister" is used somewhat more 
frequently than "kapelle" in current English, though neither word is especially 
common.