John Q. Public en · NOUN
Pronunciation
- (Australia) audio
Etymology
First use appears c. 1938. John Q. Public was the name of a character created by Vaughn Shoemaker, an editorial cartoonist for the Chicago Daily News from 1922 to 1952; Shoemaker introduced this character in 1922 but is believed to have added the "Q." sometime in the early 1930s.https://www.nytimes.com/1991/08/22/obituaries/vaughn-shoemaker-created-john-q-public.html Compare also John Doe.
Meanings
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(idiomatic, uncountable) A generic individual; some hypothetical average or ordinary citizen.
Even careful safety precautions in the factory do not make it a good place for John Q. Public to wander unattended.
Near-synonyms: everyman; Tom, Dick or Harry; Joe Sixpack
Coordinates
Jane Roe · John Doe · John Smith · Jane Doe · Richard Roe
Relateds
Synonyms
Tom, Dick or Harry · Joe Average · Joe Q. Public · man on the street · Joe Schmoe · J. Random User · Joe Blow · Joe Sixpack · everyman · Joe Bloggs · Joe Public · Joe Doakes
Translations (15)
cs Jan Novák (a generic individual; some hypothetical average or ordinary citizen) · de Max Mustermann (a generic individual; some hypothetical average or ordinary citizen) · sh Marko Marković (a generic individual; some hypothetical average or ordinary citizen) · pt Manuel Dos Santos (a generic individual; some hypothetical average or ordinary citizen) · pl Jan Kowalski (a generic individual; some hypothetical average or ordinary citizen) · ru Ива́н Ива́нович (a generic individual; some hypothetical average or ordinary citizen) · pt Zé da Silva (a generic individual; some hypothetical average or ordinary citizen) · pt João da Silva (a generic individual; some hypothetical average or ordinary citizen) · fi Matti Meikäläinen (a generic individual; some hypothetical average or ordinary citizen) · pt José da Silva (a generic individual; some hypothetical average or ordinary citizen) · nl Jan Janssen (a generic individual; some hypothetical average or ordinary citizen) · it Mario Rossi (a generic individual; some hypothetical average or ordinary citizen) · de Otto Normalverbraucher (a generic individual; some hypothetical average or ordinary citizen) · fr Jean Dupont (a generic individual; some hypothetical average or ordinary citizen) · de Hans Meier (a generic individual; some hypothetical average or ordinary citizen)