< medieval Latin factōtum ( < fac, imperative of facere to do + tōtum the whole) in phrases Johannes Factotum, Dominus Factotum, Magister factotum, which appear to be renderings in etymological equivalents of Romanic expressions = ‘John Do-everything’, ‘Mr. Do-Everything’; compare Italian fa il tutto, fattutto of similar formation. These phrases are found in 16th cent. in English, and Frère Jean Factotum (Paré a1590), Dominus Factotum also in French; their source has not yet been discovered. The word factotum without the prefixed words is used in German (as neuter n.) from 16th cent. (Grimm cites Fischart 1579), and in French and Italian from 17th cent.
1.a. In Latin phrases: Dominus factotum, used for ‘one who controls everything’, a ruler with uncontrolled power; Johannes factotum, a Jack of all trades, a would-be universal genius. Also fig.
b. One who meddles with everything, a busybody.
c. In mod. sense: A man of all-work; also, a servant who has the entire management of his master's affairs. (OED)
''Ghannouchi was a factotum of the old regime, and even if he was, as he assured the public, only an interim leader, the Casbah protesters regarded the Tunisian revolution as woefully incomplete."
- Steve Coll, "The Casbah Coalition: Tunisia's second revolution", 4 April 2011 The New Yorker
Still not quite sure what he means.
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