John Q. Public
1
6.1
- proper noun
- /dʒɑn kju ˈpʌblɪk/
:
Juan Público
- Anything that gets John Q. Public to read anything about radical Islam is a good idea.
Examples
-
We, JOHN Q. PUBLIC have taken it in the shorts again.
Blog text (7) -
That's not what John Q. Public wants to hear, so it will immediately discredit the engineer.
Blog text (7) -
The double standard way of thinking by John Q. Public...
Blog text (7) -
You cannot even get John Q. Public to vote him out of office; how are you gonna get him to revolt?
Blog text (29) -
John Q. Public will say ...
Blog text (7) -
And the average John Q. Public, who has begun to understand why businesses are afraid, knows that recovery won't happen until businesses feel safe.
Blog text (32) -
This is where John Q. Public has to come together and put this scum bag Obozo down the tube with impeachment.
Blog text (29) -
"But your average John Q. Public is going to be afraid of what he doesn't understand." He said that when he used to pull into a rest stop and cordon off his truck with a special yellow and blue rope, everyone would clear out, and he'd always get a place to himself.
Fiction book (1993) -
How many smart bombs, drones, fighter jets, military bases, policemen, judges, social workers, CIA spies, and IRS agents are demanded by John Q. Public?
Blog text (32) -
John Q. Public often feels that politicians don't represent John Q. Public's interests.
Synonyms
10
2.5
A regular man who stands for the average person
10
2.7
An ordinary person who is not an expert
5
3.4
A regular person who shows the views of most people
1
6.3
A typical person who represents what most people think
1
1.4
A person who has no title and is an ordinary member of society
1
9.9
A person from the common people in historical Latin texts
1
5.2
A typical person with no special skills or fame
1
4.1
An ordinary member of the public
An average person used as a name to represent most people in Australia
How Sophisticated
- Literature
9
8.1
36
3.2
1
6.1
- Offensive
- Offensive
3
3.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
John + Q. + public
The noun 'public' clearly signals ordinary people and 'John' marks a person, so a learner who knows the constituents can get a partial clue that the phrase refers to an ordinary or typical person. However, the use of a personal name plus an initial as a conventional stock placeholder (John Q. Public) is language- and culture-specific and not fully predictable from the parts, so full understanding requires prior exposure or cultural knowledge.
Etymology
John Q. Public may come from an old newspaper cartoon where the artist used the plain name John with a middle initial Q. and the word Public to stand for an ordinary man. That's why the name is used today to mean 'the average person' or 'ordinary people'.