“Jack of all trades, master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one.”
Why aren’t we told the full quotes and sentences?
The original version, “a jack of all trades”, is often used as a compliment for a person who is good at fixing things and has a good level of broad knowledge. They may be a master of integration. A jack of all trades that is highly skilled in many disciplines is known as a polymath.
The “master of none” element appears to have been added in the late 18th century. It made the statement less flattering to the person receiving it.
The earliest usage I’ve found is in 1612, in which it’s just “jack of all trades”. That’s it. Full stop. No “master of none”. It wasn’t even an insult at the time. If any flavor of this much-abused expression has any claim to being the “original phrase” or “complete proverb”, it’s that and that alone.
A man who can turn his hand to many things.
‘Jack’ in literature exceeds that of any other name in English and this reflects the fact that, as a derivative of the common name ‘John’, ‘Jack’ has been used just to mean ‘the common man’.
Various trades were populated by Jacks – lumberjacks, steeplejacks for example, and sailors were Jack-tars.
If 16th century commentators wanted to imply that a person was stretching their talents too thinly they resorted to the disparaging Latin term Johannes factotum (‘Johnny do-it-all’). In 1592, the English writer and member of the literary establishment Robert Greene wrote a pamphlet titled Groats-worth of Witte, criticizing William Shakespeare, a new writer on the scene.
An upstart crow, beautified with our feathers, that supposes he is as well able to bumbast out a blanke verse as the best of you. Beeing an absolute Johannes fac totum, is in his owne conceit the onely Shake-scene in a countrey.
Jack of all trades’ entered the language in 1612 when Geffray Minshull wrote of his experiences in prison in Essayes and characters of a prison and prisoners:
Some broken Citizen, who hath plaid Jack of all trades.
The ‘master of none’ addition began to be added in the late 18th century. The headmaster of Charterhouse School, Martin Clifford, in a collection of notes on the poems of Dryden, circa 1677 wrote:
Your Writings are like a Jack of all Trades Shop, they have Variety, but nothing of value.
In 1770, the Gentleman’s Magazine offered the opinion that “Jack at all trades, is seldom good at any.”
The earliest example that I can find in print of the actual phrase ‘Jack of all trades, master of none’ is in Charles Lucas’s Pharmacomastix, 1785:
The very Druggist, who in all other nations in Europe is but Pharmacopola, a mere drug-merchant, is with us, not only a physician and chirurgeon, but also a Galenic and Chemic apothecary; a seller of druggs, medicines, vertices, oils, paints or colours poysons, &c. a Jack of all trades, and in truth, master of none.
Maybe taking on ‘all trades’ wasn’t wise but Jacks were often master craftsmen in their chosen trade.
“Jack of all trades, master of none.” “But still better than master of one” or “oftentimes better than master of one” is the modern day addition to convert the phrase to its original meaning because the original phrase “Jack of All Trades” meaning has been abused and twisted.
Versatility is important, especially in a rapidly changing world.
In German there’s a word for people that are specialized to a point where they’re useful for exactly one thing: “Fachidiot”. The best literal translation would be”specialized domain idiot”. A more idiomatic translation would be that you’re a” slave to your trade*. You invest so much in becoming a specialist, you forget how to be a functional human being.