Jack of all trades
3
4.6
- noun
- /dʒæk əv ɔl treɪdz/
- Informal
:
todólogo
- I'm what was known, back in the old days, as a Jack of all trades.
- jack of all trades, master of none
- jack of all trades, master
But his work, he's he's really a, a Jack of all trades.
- But his work, he's he's really a, a Jack of all trades.
- And when we're taught to be a master of one, because a Jack of all trades is a bad thing in business.
- So my my message out there is it's OK to start as a Jack of all trades, all good.
- We all know him, the Renaissance man, Jack of all trades.
- You know, you can also be a Jack of all trades.
- It's just the Jack of all trades.
- And it it's punishing generalist Jack of all trades, especially people that are generalist in the physical realm.
- Dad was a jock, Glaswegian soldier, real hard drinking, Jack of all trades guy.
Examples
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In our small town, it's common to find someone who is a jack of all trades, able to do everything from plumbing to baking.
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Brewer, a retired jack-of-all-trades, grew up on a cattle ranch among the gilsonite seams in the Book Cliffs and has become a part-time historian of gilsonite.
Blog text (19) -
So my my message out there is it's OK to start as a Jack of all trades, all good.
-
I prefer to be a Jack of all trades than a master of one.
-
I'm a Jack of all trades.
Blog text (32) -
You don't want to become a Jack of all trades, master of none.
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You know, I'm just kind of a Jack-of-all-trades.
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Aside from that, a lot of companies are looking into jack-of-all-trades employees nowadays.
Blog text (19) -
Rittenhouse was a self-educated jack-of-all-trades who surveyed colonial boundaries, built clocks, sold real estate, and studied astronomy.
Academic text (2004) -
Benjamin Franklin was a jack of all trades: author, printer, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, activist, statesman, and diplomat.
Blog text (24)
Synonyms
9
5.5
A person who knows and works in many different areas
2
9.9
A person who does many different jobs for someone else
1
4.2
A person who is good at many different things
A woman who can do many kinds of work
Someone who knows a little about many things but is not an expert in any
A person who can do many different jobs well in a team or workplace
A person who can do many different jobs but is not an expert at any
How Versatile
2
9.1
- Informal
3
4.6
9
5.5
50
2.7
10
3.1
352
3.9
Surface Forms
Morphology
The element 'all trades' transparently signals someone involved in many kinds of work, so a learner who understands the words can infer a person who does various jobs; however, 'Jack' as a generic term for a person (rather than a proper name) and the nuance that this implies competence but not expertise are idiomatic and not fully predictable. Because the core sense (many kinds of work) is compositional but the headword usage and evaluative shading require prior exposure, this expression is only partially transparent to a B1 learner.
Etymology
Jack of all trades comes from using Jack as a simple name for an ordinary worker and trades meaning different jobs. Imagine a handy person who can fix, paint, and mend, so the phrase means 'a person who can do many different types of work'.