Jack of all trades

The jack-of-all-trades (also jack-of-all-trades because of the suspected origin of the word ) is a name for a person who is characterized by numerous talents . Comparable terms are “multi-talent”, “all-rounder” or “ universal genius”, colloquially in Austria also “Wunderwuzzi”, in Switzerland “Sibesiech”.

The word originated in the 18th century. It is a hypostatization of the shout “thousand sa sa!”, An exaggerated increase in “sa sa!”. "Sa Sa" was used as a hate speech for dogs (probably from French ça = das). So one could translate jack-of-all-trades with: a thousand this and that.

literature

• Nikolai Kinast: Muckefuck & Deadline : Words out of order . Langenscheidt, Munich / Vienna 2014, ISBN 978-3-468-73894-4 .

See also

• Practical intelligence
• intelligence
• Friedensreich Hundertwasser , who called himself the jack of all trades Friedensreich Regentag Dunkelbunt Hundertwasser .
• Jack of all trades

Web links

Wiktionary: Jack of all trades  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Wiktionary: Sibesiech  - explanations of meanings, word origins , synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Duden paperbacks: How do you say in Austria? Bibliographisches Institut, Dudenverlag, Mannheim 1969, page 223. Thousands of words are referred to here as internal German spelling. The Austrian and Swiss spelling are jack-of-all-trades.