word | factotum |
---|---|
definition | A person whose job involves doing many different kinds of work. |
eg_sentence | Over the years she had become the office factotum, who might be doing legal research one day and organizing the company picnic the next. |
explanation | This odd word doesn't come from ancient Latin, but it was coined to look as if it did. The term Johannes factotum, meaning “Jack-of-all-trades,” first shows up in writing in 1592 to describe none other than Shakespeare himself. The word gofer is similar to factotum but a bit less dignified. In other words, a factotum is an assistant, but one who may have taken over some fairly important functions |
IPA | factotum* |
Tags: mwvb::unit:11, mwvb::unit:11:word, mwvb::word, mwvb::word-cloze, mwvb::word-reverse, obsidian_to_anki
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