muster

Etymology 1

From Middle English musteren, borrowed from Anglo-Norman mostrer, Middle French monstrer, moustrer (whence the noun monstre, which gave the English noun), from Latin mōnstrō (“to show”), from moneō (“to admonish”). Cognate with French montrer (“to show”), Italian mostrare (“to show”), Spanish mostrar (“to show”). See also monster.

noun

1. Gathering.
   1. An assemblage or display; a gathering, collection of people or things.
      She seems to hear the Repetition of his Mens Names with Admiration; and waits only to answer him with as false a Muster of Lovers. 1743, Richard Steele, Joseph Addison, The Lucubrations of Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq.
      1920, Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics, Official Year Book of the Commonwealth of Australia, Issue 13, The figures from 1788 to 1825 inclusive, as already mentioned, are based on the musters taken in those years; those for subsequent years are based upon estimates made on the basis of Census results and the annual […] .
   2. (military) An assembling or review of troops, as for parade, verification of numbers, inspection, exercise, or introduction into service.
      2010, Ohtar, "Enthroned", Slechtvalk, A Forlorn Throne. To shorten his way and to hasten for the muster he takes a long lost road.
   3. The sum total of an army when assembled for review and inspection; the whole number of effective men in an army.
   4. (Australia, New Zealand) A roundup of livestock for inspection, branding, drenching, shearing etc.
      McGuire took the two of them out to Kidman's Bore on the Sylvester River where about two dozen stockmen from different stations had gathered to tend the muster along the edge of the Simpson Desert. 2006, John Gilfoyle, Bloody Jackaroos!, Boolarong Press
2. Showing.
   1. (obsolete) Something shown for imitation; a pattern.
   2. (obsolete) A sample of goods.
      The beasts they saw here were hogs and little dogs, and they found some hens; here also they found a muster of cloves, ginger, and cinnamon; though the cinnamon was not of the best: […] 1770, Alexander Dalrymple, An Historical Collection of the Several Voyages and Discoveries in the South Pacific Ocean, page 48
      A letter from Mr. Downie, dated 14th of January 1807, acknowledging the receipt of one from the plaintiff, transmitting musters of silk, and authorizing the plaintiff, on certain conditions, to proceed in his speculation […] 1868, Reports of Cases Determined in the Court of Sudder Dewanny Adawlut, page 114
   3. (obsolete) An act of showing something; a display.
      Thus all things being condignely ordered, will an ill favoured impatiencie he waited, until the next morning he might make a muster of him selfe in the Iland […] 1590, Sir Philip Sidney, Arcadia, Book III
      And when you find your women's favour fail, / 'Tis ten to one you'll know yourself, and seek me, / Upon a better muster of your manners. 1647, Beaumont and Fletcher, The Queen of Corinth, act 2
   4. A collection of peafowl. (not a term used in zoology)

verb

1. (transitive, obsolete) To show, exhibit.
2. (intransitive) To be gathered together for parade, inspection, exercise, or the like (especially of a military force); to come together as parts of a force or body.
   We were then in the third week of November; but, we took our measures so vigorously, and were so well seconded by the friends in whom we confided, that there was still a week of the month unexpired, when our party all came down together merrily, and mustered in the haunted house. 1859, Charles Dickens, The Haunted House
3. (transitive) To collect, call or assemble together, such as troops or a group for inspection, orders, display etc.
   12 July 2012, Sam Adams, AV Club Ice Age: Continental Drift With the help of some low-end boosting, Dinklage musters a decent amount of kid-appropriate menace—although he never does explain his gift for finding chunks of ice shaped like pirate ships—but Romano and Leary mainly sound bored, droning through their lines as if they’re simultaneously texting the contractors building the additions on their houses funded by their fat sequel paychecks.
4. (transitive, US) To enroll (into service).
5. (transitive, Australia, New Zealand) To gather or round up livestock.

Etymology 2

noun

1. Synonym of mustee
   The next, the Quadroon, from the white and mulatto woman. The third descent, from a white and quadroon, is called a muster; from the fourth, between a white and a muster, springs the musteephinas and the fifth descent, viz. from a white and musteephina, is white by law, and of free birth; indeed the two latter classes are as white as a European. 1825, The Gentleman's Magazine, page 4
   Mixed bloods, they are suspended between two races, — mulattoes, quadroons, musters, mustafinas, cabres, griffies, zambis, quatravis, tresalvis, coyotes, saltatras, albarassados, cambusos, — neither white nor black, but Negroes. 1925, Charles Spurgeon Johnson, Elmer Anderson Carter, Opportunity: Journal of Negro Life, page 291