4 ms·

The full version of the saying: "Jack of all trades, master of none."

14 points by squircle 1y ago

deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
its-summertime 1y ago
5 seconds of research should probably be done before hitting publish on the original article. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_of_all_trades https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_of_all_trades
- squircle 1y ago
  Why is that? Did I make myself look dumb? Or, is this a comment to the author of the original article?
  - sans_souse 1y ago
    not at all. I ^'d it. It's both a good article and a good post.
  - its-summertime 1y ago
    original article, sorry for the confusion
    - squircle 1y ago
      All good
- sans_souse 1y ago
  Ok but did you read the wiki? It might be that the wiki is lacking the referenced quote, which doesnt necessarily discredit the post. Did Shakespeare not write it? From the Wiki it seems as many popular phrases are the provenance of the saying is ambiguous and this one traces back to even just "Jack of all Trades." It isn't so simple to accurately define the origin in such a case.
  - its-summertime 1y ago
    Quoting the relevant part of the wiki page, which does have the referenced quote: > The phrase with the "master of none" element is sometimes expanded into a less unflattering couplet with the second line: "but oftentimes better than a master of one" (or variants thereof), with some sources stating that such a couplet is the "original" version, with the second line having been dropped. Online discussions attempting to find instances of this second line dated to before the twenty-first century have resulted in no response, however. I don't think Shakespeare wrote it. It is also noted that the prerequisite "master of none"'s first known usage came about well after the death of Shakespeare.
    - sans_souse 1y ago
      thank you for expanding
  - LegionMammal978 1y ago
    > Did Shakespeare not write it? No. Shakespeare wrote nothing of the sort, at least not in his surviving works. (You can just search for it [0].) Also, the "better than a master of one" version is most likely a modern invention, given its apparently-complete absence among 20th-century books [1]. (In contrast, real sayings tend to show up all over the place, with how much old almanacs and magazines loved using them to fill space.) [0] https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/100/pg100-images.html https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/100/pg100-images.html [1] https://www.google.com/search?q=better+than+a+master+of+one&udm=36&tbs=cdr%3A1%2Ccd_min%3A1900%2Ccd_max%3A1999 https://www.google.com/search?q=better+than+a+master+of+one&...
    - sans_souse 1y ago
      thank you. the whole thing became more interesting now given this context

14 points by squircle 1y ago

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

5 seconds of research should probably be done before hitting publish on the original article. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_of_all_trades https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_of_all_trades

squircle 1y ago
Why is that? Did I make myself look dumb? Or, is this a comment to the author of the original article?
- sans_souse 1y ago
  not at all. I ^'d it. It's both a good article and a good post.
- its-summertime 1y ago
  original article, sorry for the confusion
  - squircle 1y ago
    All good
sans_souse 1y ago
Ok but did you read the wiki? It might be that the wiki is lacking the referenced quote, which doesnt necessarily discredit the post. Did Shakespeare not write it? From the Wiki it seems as many popular phrases are the provenance of the saying is ambiguous and this one traces back to even just "Jack of all Trades." It isn't so simple to accurately define the origin in such a case.
- its-summertime 1y ago
  Quoting the relevant part of the wiki page, which does have the referenced quote: > The phrase with the "master of none" element is sometimes expanded into a less unflattering couplet with the second line: "but oftentimes better than a master of one" (or variants thereof), with some sources stating that such a couplet is the "original" version, with the second line having been dropped. Online discussions attempting to find instances of this second line dated to before the twenty-first century have resulted in no response, however. I don't think Shakespeare wrote it. It is also noted that the prerequisite "master of none"'s first known usage came about well after the death of Shakespeare.
  - sans_souse 1y ago
    thank you for expanding
- LegionMammal978 1y ago
  > Did Shakespeare not write it? No. Shakespeare wrote nothing of the sort, at least not in his surviving works. (You can just search for it [0].) Also, the "better than a master of one" version is most likely a modern invention, given its apparently-complete absence among 20th-century books [1]. (In contrast, real sayings tend to show up all over the place, with how much old almanacs and magazines loved using them to fill space.) [0] https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/100/pg100-images.html https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/100/pg100-images.html [1] https://www.google.com/search?q=better+than+a+master+of+one&udm=36&tbs=cdr%3A1%2Ccd_min%3A1900%2Ccd_max%3A1999 https://www.google.com/search?q=better+than+a+master+of+one&...
  - sans_souse 1y ago
    thank you. the whole thing became more interesting now given this context