journeyman

[ jur-nee-muhn ]

noun

, plural jour·ney·men.

1. a person who has served an apprenticeship at a trade or handicraft and is certified to work at it assisting or under another person.
2. any experienced, competent but routine worker or performer.
3. a person hired to do work for another, usually for a day at a time.

journeyman

/ ˈdʒɜːnɪmən /

noun

1. a craftsman, artisan, etc, who is qualified to work at his trade in the employment of another
2. a competent workman
3. (formerly) a worker hired on a daily wage

journeyman

1. A skilled artisan who works on hire for master artisans rather than for himself.

Word History and Origins

Origin of journeyman¹

1425–75; late Middle English journeman, equivalent to journee a day's work ( journey ) + man man

Word History and Origins

Origin of journeyman¹

C15: from journey (in obsolete sense: a day's work) + man

Example Sentences

For 67 summers, owners and all-stars and journeymen drifted by, and Scully stayed.

From Washington Post

Those shortages have been affecting the competitive integrity of the games in myriad ways, from hollowing out rosters to forcing teams to be filled with journeymen.

From FiveThirtyEight

My father hired a couple of journeyman carpenters to help with a building project.

From Vox

The latter dictates when they advance from apprentice to journeyman, for which there is a significant difference in pay.

From Washington Post

If being a journeyman professional distance runner was a rough way to make a living before, the pandemic has made it virtually impossible.

From Outside Online

He'll be played by Grahame Fox, a journeyman Welsh actor who's appeared on the U.K. soap EastEnders and the TV series Casualty.

From The Daily Beast

To play the character, showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss cast Pedro Pascal, a journeyman Chilean-American actor.

From The Daily Beast

Journeyman players whose only skill is total disregard for their bodies become legends, albeit short-term ones.

From The Daily Beast

And journeyman Swedish golfer Johan Edfors, who attended the University of Texas San Antonio, is really no match here.

From The Daily Beast

“I was a journeyman chef of middling abilities,” Bourdain admits.

From The Daily Beast

You learn that this journeyman artist once was a well-known painter of the Quarter, who had drawn for years in the academies.

From Project Gutenberg

The proportion of journeymen to apprentices was regulated: there were to be three apprentices to one journeyman.

From Project Gutenberg

The letter from his son, who had finished his apprenticeship as journeyman joiner half a year ago, was sufficiently frivolous.

From Project Gutenberg

Orion, by this time seventeen and a very good journeyman printer, obtained a place in St. Louis to aid in the family support.

From Project Gutenberg

He had never employed a journeyman, and would never take more than two apprentices at a time.

From Project Gutenberg