Metalcraft

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The art or skill of shaping and working with metals to create decorative or functional objects; the process or trade involved in crafting items from metal; the practice of metal forming and ornamentation used in various crafts and industries
2. A craft involving the manipulation and fabrication of metals into artistic or useful products; the technique and craftsmanship of producing metal goods; the discipline of designing and constructing objects through metalworking methods
3. The creation of objects by fashioning metal materials through skilled workmanship; the trade or activity focused on metal shaping and finishing; the profession or hobby of crafting metal into decorative or practical items

Etymology: Metalcraft is a plain compound: "metal" joined to "craft," the Old English "cræft," which meant skill or power and, in later English, a trade or the skill it takes to practise one. Its first element traces back through Old French "metal" to the Latin "metallum," itself borrowed from the Greek "métallon," a word for a mine or a thing dug out of the earth. So the material is named after the place it came from. The second element has a more surprising history. "Craft" once meant strength and cunning more than making things: Old English "cræft" could mean power, skill or even deceit, and those older senses survive in "witchcraft" and "aircraft." Compounds ending in "-craft" were built freely in English, which is why the word fits so easily alongside "woodcraft" and "silversmithing" in the same family of trades.

Synonyms: metalworking, metallurgy, metal fabrication, smithing, metal art