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factotum

noun
/fækˈtəʊ.təm/UK/fækˈtoʊ.təm/US

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.

  1. derived from domine fac tōtum — “O Lord, do everything”

Definitions

  1. A person having many diverse activities or responsibilities.

  2. A general servant.

    • Susan Bonner’s mistress hearing of Strong’s arrival sent for him at this juncture, and the Chevalier went up to her ladyship not without hopes that he should find her more tractable than her factotum Mrs. Bonner.

  3. A person employed to do all sorts of duties.

    • Biden’s and Bush’s factotums had to walk their statements quickly back, emphasizing that U.S. policy had not changed.
  4. ›+ 2 more definitions

    1. A jack of all trades.

    2. A large decorative printing block with a central space into which any letter can be…

      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.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for factotum. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA