The word "master" when used in the sense of one thing controlling another thing (as opposed to skill mastery) has become an unword in growing circles.
In communities of people who write technical specifications, the concept of one thing (non-human) having control over other things is common. Is there a deanthropomorphized equivalent?
Examples:
- Master data list -- a primary, singleton, authoritative, commanding list of vendors, accounts, files, etc. which all other lists of same must reference and synchronize to
What I tried:
- Authoritative. This word can convey substantially the same meaning. But it is clumsy for having too many syllables for a very common thing: "authoritative vendor list," "authoritative account list". Also it fails to convey active command. You could describe some dictionary as authoritative but you would not say it is commanding. When an entry from a "master data list" is deleted, it is not sufficient that other references to it become invalid, instead every other reference to it must be deleted simultaneously. This is an active change which is propagated by the change above.
