The context is important to words. I never thought of Master bedroom having any connotations of mastery of anything, least of all any human beings. It was the bedroom that the owner/owners of the house would most likely use. This is due to me living in the context of now, not a century or more previous. If I was reading a novel or historical reference to those past times, then I would take the word in a different context, if the text warranted it.
If people are going to start taking words out of context, then there is no way to know what might offend them. Many words have many shades of meaning depending on the context they are being used in. If one is going to ignore the current, intended, obvious context, then there is no way to be sure you are not offending or even making sense.
Some folks seem intent to construe offence by ignoring context. Then they will be often offended and often be found annoying and maybe even offensive.
Of course there should be no statute of limitations on anti-semitism, xenophobia or racism. No one is saying that. What I am saying is that unless you or someone you know has been a slave, I fail to see why you or anyone else should be offended by the term “master bedroom.” Slavery hasn’t existed in the U.S. since the 1860s. No one alive today has been a slave or a master. Racism still exists, of course, but changing “master” bedroom to “primary” bedroom, IMHO, is an empty gesture that accomplishes nothing. If people are offended, it’s more about them than about the word.
These two sentences are a bit contradictory.
And if the house is inhabited by an owner and their dependant children, “master bedroom” makes sense, as the bedroom used by those in charge. If it’s a parent, their adult child, and the adult child’s spouse, it makes less sense. Or if three unrelated adults share the house. Or…
There aren’t as many “traditional nuclear families” as their used to be, and the idea of a master bedroom may be more obsolete than the name.
For real estate transactions, it’s probably more helpful to say the house has an en suite bedroom, two other large bedrooms, and a small bedroom.
As I stated. I never felt it had connotations of Mastery over anything. The term is not, the Master’s bedroom. Makes no difference to me if it is referred to as the main, primary, swankiest, bedroom. It does not demand as to who uses it nor how they act in relation to others. It is putting unintended meaning onto a word and then taking offence that is bothersome and often cumbersome.
Master bedroom means the master’s bedroom. It’s not like it’s the master of all the other bedrooms.
Incorrect.
“Human trafficking” and “sex trafficking” are terms that often cover modern forms of slavery. Slavery has been illegal in the US since the 1860’s, that does not mean it doesn’t exist. Also, there are cases of former slaves seeking asylum in the US (and other countries).
I refer you to this report by the World Population Review
I also refer you to this wikipedia article.
It would be nice to think there is no more slavery but that is not the factual truth.
I agree. There is important work to be done in our society. This does not seem to be major part of that, if it is part of it at all.
Yeah - I got called out publicly on that one. The person effected me changing my usage - and my eternal enmity. 
So now when folks say they need to get oriented, I often ask if they mean “Asiated”.
This is another silly thing I don’t care that much about. I’ll probably still default to master bedroom - I just don’t say it often. But I wouldn’t be surprised if over time I end up saying primary or main, if enough people are loudly annoying enough about it.
There is the longtime master/servant relationship in law - having nothing to do with slavery.
Has anyone here claimed it is?
The OP, who works in property management, experienced someone claiming the term is racist. No one here agrees that it historically is. No one here believes the changing what word is used for the bigger bedroom undos redlining or systemic racism in the industry.
Clearly though language usage is evolving and some number now respond to the word that way. The OP is not the only who has used the word to that reaction. Some may prescriptively want to stand their ground, defend that word usage, and resist changing usage patterns. They are free to do so. We do however seem to be reaching a linguistic tipping point. I know. It was hard to switch from “retarded” to “developmentally delayed”, from “Negro” to “Black” … change … whatcha gonna do?
If the language changes, whatever, that’s how it works, but I’m not the least bit convinced that there was any widespread rejection of this term in the communities that the change is supposed to be sensitive toward.
I worked regularly as a Realtor - specifically a buyer’s agent - from 2015 to 2020 - and as my license is still active and I am still registrered with the brokerage, I have occasionally covered other agents’ showings with buyers as recently as last month. So I have shown hundreds of houses to perhaps 150 different people in that time, of every ethnic background and primarily first-time homebuyers, many in exactly that age range.
EVERYONE always asks: “where’s the master?! Where’s the master? Which one of these bedrooms is the master?!! Master suite, Master bath, Master Master Master.”
It’s “master bedroom”, not “master’s bedroom”. The word “master” here is an adjective that means “main; principal”. It’s not a noun. This notion is ridiculous.
Slavery may be illegal, but reports indicate slaves are today more plentiful and cheaper than ever.
Language-wise, one could theoretically argue that the term is offensive to Slavs, who knows.
As someone who works in retail/selling stuff… let the customer be the guide. If the customer asks “which is the master bedroom?” then go ahead and use that term. If the customer asks “which is the primary bedroom” then use that one. Know your audience.
Exactly. Master key, master’s degree, master of your craft, legal master (a la Trump). The only example I can think of that is even remotely off is when someone is talking about some electronics, where you may have a master unit and slave units.
When is the last time you heard anyone employ these usages? I don’t think I’ve encountered them since I last read an Enid Blyton story.
I don’t think these are true. At least, I don’t think that’s how the room got that name. Maybe that’s what it means now, but I can’t think of any other uses of master that mean “main” and not “overarching”. I think the word carries the connotation that the master of the house sleeps in this room.
There’s a common notion that somehow doing X prevents people from doing Y. There are certainly cases where that’s true - we all have only so much time, attention, and other resource. But this REALLY isn’t such a situation. If anything, removing the word “master” where it’s not actually problematic makes it easier to remove it where it IS problematic. Changing the use of a word certainly isn’t going to prevent anyone from taking any other actions they might have been inclined to take.
I still mostly use “master bedroom”, but I expect I’ll stop doing so within 5 years or so, as I think the term is falling out of fashion in real estate listings, and other places where it tends to be used.
Master of the house
quick to tell a joke
have to change the term because it’s not quite woke.
Master of my domain.
In blue state new construction, the operative phrase seems to be owner’s suite. This often implies that the biggest bedroom and bathroom are on the first floor, but not necessarily.
Googling a bit, I find that, in the solidly GOP state of Wyoming, it still is a master bedroom. But in purplish Minnesota, it can go either way. it is an owner’s suite, in blue Dakota County, even when they call the model the Wyoming. But in the town of Wyoming, in red Chisago County Minnesota, it is still a master bedroom.