Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun One who has fully served an apprenticeship in a trade or craft and is a qualified worker in another's employ.
  • noun An experienced and competent but undistinguished worker.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A man hired to work by the day; a day-worker.
  • noun A workman or mechanic who has served his apprenticeship; specifically, a qualified mechanic employed in the exercise of his trade, as distinguished from a master mechanic or a foreman.
  • noun In astronomy, a secondary clock in an observatory: used, generally, as an intermediary in the comparison of standard clocks: more fully, journeyman clock.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Formerly, a man hired to work by the day; now, commonly, one who has finished an apprenticeship and is a competent worker in a handicraft or trade, but has not received recognition as a master; -- distinguished from apprentice and from master workman.
  • noun A competent and experienced worker who performs adequately but without a high level of expertise or imagination.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun a tradesman who has served an apprenticeship and is employed by a master tradesman
  • noun a competent but undistinguished tradesman, especially one who works, and is paid by the day
  • noun sports a player who plays on many different teams during the course of his career

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a skilled worker who practices some trade or handicraft

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English journeiman : journei, a day's work; see journey + man, man; see man.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old French jornee ("a day's work, a journey") +‎ -man

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Examples

  • At this point, as the name journeyman implies, you get some confidence-boosting independence and a significant pay raise.

    Flushed W. Hodding Carter 2006

  • At this point, as the name journeyman implies, you get some confidence-boosting independence and a significant pay raise.

    Flushed W. Hodding Carter 2006

  • Before the term "journeyman" permanently affixed itself to his resume.

    KansasCity.com: Front Page 2011

  • • Canada starting pitcher Mike Johnson gives new meaning to the term journeyman righthander.

    SI.com 2009

  • _ -- Three or four years since, a paragraph went the round of the press, deriving the English word "journeyman" from the custom of travelling among work-men in Germany.

    Notes and Queries, Number 19, March 9, 1850 Various

  • Indeed something shall be done. my income as a journeyman is diminish'd through the publicity of my name; I have to visit and to write more than I could allwash wish, my expence even for letters is not small.

    Letter 40 2009

  • In any event, after some success, incorporation into the guild and employment as journeyman is all but inevitable for almost everyone who has had even modest success in the marketplace; the guild is eager to remove such authentic literary writers from the marketplace as soon as possible, to eliminate the competition.

    Anis Shivani: Creative Writing Programs: Is The MFA System Corrupt And Undemocratic? Anis Shivani 2010

  • In any event, after some success, incorporation into the guild and employment as journeyman is all but inevitable for almost everyone who has had even modest success in the marketplace; the guild is eager to remove such authentic literary writers from the marketplace as soon as possible, to eliminate the competition.

    Anis Shivani: Creative Writing Programs: Is The MFA System Corrupt And Undemocratic? Anis Shivani 2010

  • Bohanon, always the epitome of a journeyman, is one of the Mets 'best pitchers?

    As spring training winds down, Jays seeking to fly high 1998

  • Dissatisfied with the terms victim or survivor since they don't quite fit, the author chooses the term journeyman, a traveler guided by hope.

    Stirrup Queens and Sperm Palace Jesters 2009

Comments

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  • See scribber

    March 25, 2012

  • This word was used a lot in the "Dragonriders Of Pern" series of books.

    July 8, 2012