factotumn.

1562 H. Killigrew Let. 16 Oct. SP 70/42, f. 14^v I am now fac totum vntyll the reast com I meane harbenger, stower of victuailes and shepe keper.

1620 tr. G. Boccaccio Decameron I. iii. i. f. 80 He..would serue there no longer: but making his accounts euen, with the Factotum or Bayliffe [It. castaldo] belonging to the house, returned thence to the village of Lamporechio.

1699 W. Baron Just Def. Royal Martyr ii. iv. 179 An Old Man, who..was the Fac totum in the Family, and had more especially charge of the Cellar.

1782 W. Cowper Let. 18 Mar. (1981) II. 39 The garden, where I am my own fac totum.

1824 M. R. Mitford Our Village I. 13 The pensioner and factotum of the village, amongst whom he divides his services.

1863 M. E. Braddon Eleanor's Victory III. ii. 25 A butler, or factotum,—for there was only one male servant in the house.

1892 F. E. W. Harper Iola Leroy v. 40 As a general factotum in the army, he was ever ready and willing to serve anywhere and at any time.

1935 ‘A. Bridge’ Illyrian Spring i. 12 He..contrived to convey to his factotum precise instructions about a restaurant, a table and an early dinner.

1983 L. Deighton Berlin Game vi. 53 Mrs Dias, our Portuguese cook, housekeeper and general factotum, was always staying late to cook dinner.

2008 Atlantic Monthly Sept. 92/2 His business card defines him as a ‘compradore’, an all-purpose factotum steeped in local culture, the kind of enabler who was vital to the running of the British East India Company.

1575 T. Vautrollier tr. M. Luther Comm. Epist. to Galathians f. 124 Faith therefore (if I may so say) is Fac totu[m] [L. fac totum] in faithful works. [margin] Fac totum is that which is all in all, and doth all alone.

1619 C. A. tr. L. Richeome Holy Pictures xiii. 252 The hand may well signifie workes; for it is the Instrument of instruments, and the Factotum [Fr. le factotum] both of spirit and body.

1688 G. Parker & J. Stalker Treat. Japaning xvi. 47 Some variety of metals indeed may be admitted, but in a very slender proportion to that of gold, which is the Fac totum, the general ornament of right genuine Japan-work.

1707 P. A. Motteux Farewel Folly iii. 65 Here's his Superexcellent Nostrum, call'd Physick's Factotum! It cures Ninety Nine deadly Distempers.

1771 T. James Hist. Herculean Straits I. i. ix. 153 This Portus Gaditanus..is the common retreat of the galleons that came from the Indies to Spain; which is by the Spaniards called their fac totum.

1826 C. Swan Jrnl. Voy. Mediterranean II. xvi. 219 We cooked our coffee in a pan which we had brought along with us, and which served for every purpose—the factotum of our establishment.

1893 (title) The doctor's factotum: a bi-monthly journal.

1907 E. Montgomery Philos. Probl. Light Vital Organization ii. v. 304 Motion can..nowise be an all-efficient agent such as mechanical science makes use of as its factotum.

1940 J. H. Jagger Eng. in Future ii. 31 Have is another factotum, but gets off more lightly than get.

2003 Text 15 157 This empty box invites these classes of readers to supplement the text..; it is a factotum signifying a dialogic relationship between writing and printing.

1573 G. Gascoigne tr. Ariosto Supposes iii. iv, in Hundreth Sundrie Flowres 31 He had the disbursing..of al my masters affaires..he was Magister fac totum. [It. era fa il tutto.]

1599 T. Nashe Lenten Stuffe sig. D3 The redde herring was this old Ticklecob or Magister fac totum, that brought in the red ruddocks and the grummell seed as thicke as oatmeale, and made Yarmouth for argent to put downe the citty of Argentine.

1837 New Monthly Mag. 49 524 That renowned and all-accomplished animal,..the Prægrandem simiam,..which so excelled in many arts, that it was named Magister Factotum.

1592 Greenes Groats-worth of Witte sig. F^v Beeing an absolute Iohannes fac totum, [he] is in his owne conceit the onely Shake-scene in a countrey.

1844 J. P. Collier Life Shakespeare in Wks. Shakespeare I. p. cxxxii Shakespeare was the Johannes Fac-totum who could turn his hand to any thing connected with his profession.

1861 Atlantic Monthly Dec. 765/1 What a weight for the shoulders of our poor Johannes Factotum! He is the commissionnaire of mankind, their guide, philosopher, and friend.

a1898 W. Brann in J. D. Shaw Brann, Iconoclast (1905) II. 274 He was a kind of half-baked poetaster or he-bulbul, a Johannes Factotum in the province of dilettanteism.

1939 H. J. Massingham Country Relics v. 112 Sam Tipping..was a typical Johannes Factotum of the big farms of the past. He had done cartering; he had been blacksmith's assistant; [etc.].

1970 A. Burgess Shakespeare vii. 109 A real Johannes factotum of the book trade, ready to write, print, playmake, or do anything with words.

2013 L. Woiwode Words for Readers & Writers iii. xv. 149 Chaucer..served as Johannes factotum to kings such as Edward and Richard II.