Jill-of-all-trades and mistress of none

See also: Jill of all trades and mistress of none

English

Noun

Jill-of-all-trades and mistress of none (plural Jills-of-all-trades and mistresses of none)

1. Alternative form of Jill of all trades, mistress of none.
   • 1876, W[illiam] E[dward] Wilcox, “Hash”, in Spa Sketches, &c., London: Simpkin, Marshall, and Co.; Scarborough: Theakston and Co., […], page 93:

     And has your dismay decreased when, having made your moan, the excellent lady says cheerfully, that Sarah, the “general servant”—a Jill-of-all-trades and mistress of none—shall try her hand at a “hash?”

   • 1883, R[ichard] E[rnest] N[owell] Twopeny, “Servants”, in Town Life in Australia, London: Elliot Stock, […], page 50:

     Directly you come to incomes below a thousand a year, the number of servants is often reduced to a maid-of-all-work, more or less competent according to her wages, which run from seven to fifteen shillings a week. At the former price she knows absolutely nothing; at the latter something of everything. She cooks, washes, sweeps, dusts, makes the beds, clears the baths, and answers the door. All is grist that comes to her mill; and if she is Jill-of-all-trades and mistress of none, one must admit that an English-bred servant would not be one quarter so suitable to colonial requirements.

   • 1987, Nursing Times, Nursing Mirror, page 5:

     The question has to be asked: are theatre nurses making the best use of their skills? Or are they being used to plug the gaps in the theatre service and so becoming Jills-of-all-trades and mistresses of none?

   • 1998, “Childhood and Adolescence”, in Sara Heller Mendelson, Patricia [Marcia] Crawford, editors, Women in Early Modern England, 1550–1720, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN, section “Service”, page 102:

     Many substantial yeoman or ‘middling’ households included two maidservants at most; artisans’ or husbandmen’s families could afford only a single one. Thus the typical female servant was the Jill-of-all-trades and mistress of none.

   • 2004, Joan Kilby, chapter 11, in Family Matters, Harlequin, →ISBN, page 187:

     “The previous owner built the gate but I’m responsible for the nails. I’m a Jill-of-all-trades and mistress of none.”

   • 2009, Susanne James, “The British Billionaire’s Innocent Bride”, in Undressed by the Billionaire, Mills & Boon, published 2013, →ISBN, page 38:

     ‘And you’re…Bea?’ she asked shyly. ‘That’s right, dear—Jill-of-all-trades and mistress of none!’