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''factotum'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260904120411-00-⌔

factotum - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

factotum (plural factotums or (nonstandard) factota)

  • A person employed to perform 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.1
  • A jack of all trades.
    • ✤ Synonyms: handyman, jack of all trades, sciolist
    • ✤ He lives with his devoted sister and factotum, Cyril (Lesley Manville), and a series of women who tend to be quietly eased out when they demand too much time and attention or — heaven forfend! — dare to speak during Woodcock’s monastic creative routine.2
  • (printing, historical) 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.
  • (dated) A person having many diverse activities or responsibilities.
  • (dated) A general servant.
    • ✤ Synonym: do-all
    • ✤ I had almost forgotten Monee, the grinning old man who prepared our meal. […] He was Po-Po’s factotum —cook, butler, and climber of the bread-fruit and cocoa-nut trees; and, added to all else, a mighty favourite with his mistress; with whom he would sit smoking and gossiping by the hour.3
    • ✤ 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.4

Etymology

Ellipsis of domine fac totum, dominus fac totum/dominus factotum (“absolute ruler; head servant”),5 from Medieval Latin domine fac tōtum (“O Lord, do everything”), also with substition of nominative dominus for vocative domine.6

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA: /fækˈtəʊ.təm/
  • (US) IPA: /fækˈtoʊ.təm/
  • Audio (US): 🔊

Printed 2026-09-04.

(echo:: @ ⌗)

Footnotes

  1. 2021 November 5, Jon Schwarz, The Intercept ‎, First Look Media: ↩

  2. 2018 January 10, Ann Hornaday, “‘Phantom Thread’: In his final role, Daniel Day-Lewis reminds us he’s a monumental talent”, in Washington Post ‎: ↩

  3. 1847 March 30, Herman Melville, chapter 73, in Omoo: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas; […], London: John Murray, […], →OCLC: ↩

  4. 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 61, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC: ↩

  5. “factotum, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000. ↩

  6. “dominus factotum, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000. ↩

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Secondary

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