Jack of all trades, master of none

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"Jack of all trades, master of none" is a figure of speech used in reference to a Generalist, a person, that is competent with many skills but is not outstanding in any particular one.

Ultimately, a Jack of all trades may be a master of integration, as such an individual knows enough from many learned trades and skills to be able to bring their disciplines together in a practical manner, and is not a specialist. Such a person is known as a polymath or a Renaissance man, and a typical example is someone like Leonardo da Vinci.

In 1612, the phrase appeared in 'Essays and Characters of a Prison' by Geffray Mynshul and the phrase has been in use in the United States since 1721.^[1]

The 'jack of all trades' part of the phrase was in common use during the 1600s and was generally used as a term of praise. 'Jack' in those days was a generic term for 'man'. Later the 'master of none' was added and the expression ceased to be very flattering. Today, the phrase used in its entirety generally describes a person whose knowledge, while covering a number of areas, is superficial in all of them, whilst when abbreviated as simply 'jack of all trades' is more ambiguous and the user's intention may vary, dependent on context.^[2]

A longer version of the quote, in the form of a couplet, comes back to a compliment.

Jack of all trades, master of none,

though offtimes better than master of one.^[3]

[edit] In other languages

• Chinese
  • Mandarin (Simplified): 门门懂,样样瘟.
  • Mandarin (Traditional): 門門懂,樣樣瘟.
  • Cantonese: 周身刀,無張利.

• Spanish
  • Spain: Aprendiz de todo, maestro de nada ("apprentice of everything, master of nothing").^[4]
  • Mexico: a todo le haces, y a nada le atinas (You make everything, but you can not be right in anything).

• Brazilian Portuguese: pau para toda obra (literally, "wood for every construction") is also commonly used, but with a positive connotation, describing someone who is able and willing to serve many tasks (with enough competence).

• Lithuanian: devyni amatai – dešimtas badas ("when you have nine trades, then your tenth one is famine/starvation"), there is also a term Barbė šimtadarbė (Barbie with hundred professions).

• Estonian: üheksa ametit, kümnes nälg (nine trades, the tenth one - starvation).

• Greek: Πολυτεχνίτης και ερημοσπίτης (he who knows a lot of crafts lives in an empty house"; the empty house – without a spouse and children – implies poverty and lack of prosperity).

• Arabic: صاحب بالين كداب (the one who think of two things is a lair).

• Elizabethan English: the synonymous quasi-New Latin term Johannes factotum ("Johnny do-it-all") was sometimes used, with the same negative connotation^[5] that "Jack of all trades" sometimes has today. The term was famously used by Robert Greene in the earliest surviving published reference to William Shakespeare.

• Urdu language: ' ("ھر فن مولا").

[edit] References