"A small but interesting group of words is that made up of calques, formed by translating the elements of a compound loan-word to produce a word made up of native elements but with its meaning derived from the foreign word, as in 'masterpiece,' borrowed in the seventeenth century from Dutch 'meesterstuk' or German 'meisterstuck,' a piece of work by which a workman qualifies as a craftsman."
- G.L. Brook, <i>Words in Everyday Life 7</i> (1981)