Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Factotum

Factotum \fak-TOH-tuhm\ , noun;
1. A person employed to do all kinds of work or business

This word dates to the 1560's and comes from Middle Latin factotum, which is a compound of fac + totum. Fac is the imperative of facere ("do") and totum means "all". Facere is derived from the Proto-Indo-European base *dhe- meaning "to put, to do". It is also the forebear of French faire and Spanish hacer.

Today's word and the first definition were both taken from Dictionary.com's 'Word of the Day' for Wednesday, February 16
Etymologies come from the Oxford English Dictionary and/or Etymonline.com

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