noun
Meaning 1
A person employed to perform all sorts of duties.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Standard Lemma guide
factotum
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
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UK: /fækˈtəʊ.təm/
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US: /fækˈtoʊ.təm/
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US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
noun
Meaning 2
A jack of all trades.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: handyman, jack of all trades, sciolist
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 3
A large decorative printing block with a central space into which any letter can be inserted, used to mark the beginning of a chapter of a book in early printing.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: historical
Topics: media, printing, publishing
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 4
A person having many diverse activities or responsibilities.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: dated
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 5
A general servant.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: dated
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: do-all
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 6
a servant employed to do a variety of jobs
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: servant, retainer
History
Etymology
Ellipsis of domine fac totum, dominus fac totum /dominus factotum (“absolute ruler; head servant”), from Medieval Latin domine fac tōtum (“O Lord, do everything”), also with substition of nominative dominus for vocative domine.
Across languages
Translations
43 source translations are retained for this English entry.
- Danish: altmuligmand — person having many responsibilities
- French: factotum — person having many responsibilities
- German: Faktotum — person having many responsibilities
- Greek: παντοποιός (pantopoiós) — person having many responsibilities
- Hungarian: tótumfaktum — person having many responsibilities
- Italian: factotum — person having many responsibilities
- Kyrgyz: фактотум (faktotum) — person having many responsibilities
- Kyrgyz: ишенген кызматкер (işengen kızmatker) — person having many responsibilities
- Polish: totumfacki — person having many responsibilities
- Polish: totumfacka — person having many responsibilities
- Portuguese: factótum — person having many responsibilities
- Portuguese: faz tudo — person having many responsibilities
- Portuguese: factoto — person having many responsibilities
- Spanish: todero — person having many responsibilities
- Swedish: faktotum — person having many responsibilities
- Swedish: alltiallo — person having many responsibilities
- Czech: děvče pro všechno — general servant
- Danish: faktotum — general servant
- Dutch: factotum — general servant
- Dutch: manusje-van-alles — general servant
- German: Faktotum — general servant
- Hungarian: tótumfaktum — general servant
- Italian: factotum — general servant
- Polish: totumfacki — general servant
- Polish: totumfacka — general servant
- Scottish Gaelic: gille-gach-gnothaich — general servant
- Spanish: muchacho de los mandados — general servant
- Spanish: hombre orquesta — general servant
- Swedish: allt-i-allo — general servant
- Bulgarian: момче за всичко (momče za vsičko) — jack of all trades
- Dutch: factotum — jack of all trades
- Dutch: manusje-van-alles — jack of all trades
- Dutch: duiveldoetal — jack of all trades
- German: Alleskönner — jack of all trades
- German: Mädchen für alles — jack of all trades
- Hungarian: ezermester — jack of all trades
- Ido: faktotum — jack of all trades
- Polish: omnibus — jack of all trades
- Portuguese: faz-tudo — jack of all trades
- Russian: мастер на все руки (master na vse ruki) — jack of all trades
- Serbo-Croatian: katica za sve — jack of all trades
- Spanish: muchacho de los mandados — jack of all trades
- Spanish: hombre orquesta — jack of all trades