jack of all trades

【英文解釋】person who does a variety of work.

【中文解釋】能做多種不同工作的人；雜而不精的人

【短語來源】Jack is a familiar, affectionate or diminutive version of John, perhaps the commonest British name, and occurs in numerous expressions to mean an ordinary man, fellow, chap, etc. Thus jack of all trades(person who does a variety of work), every man jack(everyone without exception), jack-in-the-box and cheap jack(originally Cheap Jack, man who travels about offering bargains for sale, now usually applied to person who sells goods are cheap, shoddy or inferior). Jack is also used as a word for a labouring man(steeplejack) and to express masculinity:a jackass (fool) is originally a male ass. It is a nickname or familiar term of? past. A jack is also something taking the place of a man to save labour.

affectionate? adj. 摯愛的，親切的，情深的
diminutive adj. 小巧可愛的，微笑的
chap n. 【口】家伙,小伙子,男人
steeplejack n. 尖塔修建工;高空作業(yè)修建工
jackass n, 愚蠢的人，蠢貨，傻瓜
ass n. 蠢驢，傻瓜

Jack是John的一個版本，但比John聽起來更有感情，含有一種很小巧可愛的意味在里面。Jack可以說是最普通的一個英文名字，大概就跟漢語里的小明、小紅差不多。它在很多種表達(dá)中都表示普通人。比如說jack of all trades 能做多種工作的人；every man jack 每個人；jack-in-the-box 裝在匣內(nèi) 打開匣蓋 自行彈起的玩偶/兒童玩具箱；cheep jack，原寫作Cheap Jack，賣廉價貨物的小販，現(xiàn)在多指販賣便宜、假冒和劣質(zhì)商品的小販。

Jack也用于指體力勞動者，如steeplejack 尖塔維修工，高空作業(yè)維修工。

Jack的用法其實很多，還可指男性，比如jackass（蠢貨；傻瓜）原就是指男滴傻瓜。

同時，jack也可在某些領(lǐng)域表示節(jié)省人力的工具，如car-jack就是車輛起重器的意思。

在過去，jack在過去是綽號和很常見的詞。

【有例有句】Jack is as good as his master.

諺：伙計不比老板差，卑賤者未必不如高貴者。