# factotum

Pronunciation: say "fak-TOH-tuhm" US /fækˈtoʊ.təm/, UK /fækˈtəʊ.təm/

## Noun

1. A person employed or relied on to do all kinds of work and tasks, rather than one particular job.
   - Simple: Someone who does many different jobs and tasks for a person or a place.
   - _The nonprofit's only factotum handled payroll, fixed the copier, and updated the website, all on a part-time salary._
   - _The governor's factotums were sent out to calm nervous donors after his remarks on taxes caused an uproar._

## Other meanings

- (noun) In early printing, a large ornamental printing block with a central space into which any letter could be set, used to mark the start of a chapter.

## Origin

A shortened form of "domine fac totum" or "dominus fac totum" ("absolute ruler; head servant"). This comes from the Medieval Latin phrase "domine fac tōtum" ("O Lord, do everything"), which also appeared with the nominative "dominus" in place of the vocative "domine."

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/factotum (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).