John Q. Public

English

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.[1]

Compare also John Doe. (This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

• Audio (Australia):

  (file)

Noun

John Q. Public (uncountable)

1. (idiomatic) A generic individual; some hypothetical average or ordinary citizen.

   Synonyms: Joe Average, Joe Bloggs, Joe Blow, Joe Doakes, Joe Public, Joe Q. Public, Joe Schmoe, J. Random User, man on the street

   Coordinate terms: John Doe, Jane Doe; Richard Roe, Jane Roe; John Smith

   Near-synonyms: everyman; Tom, Dick or Harry; Joe Sixpack

   Even careful safety precautions in the factory do not make it a good place for John Q. Public to wander unattended.

Related terms

• John Q. Law

Translations

a generic individual; some hypothetical average or ordinary citizen

• Czech: Jan Novák m
• Dutch: Jan Janssen m (Flanders)
• Finnish: Matti Meikäläinen (fi)
• French: Jean Dupont m
• German: Hans Meier m (Austria, Switzerland), Max Mustermann (de) m, Otto Normalverbraucher (de) m
• Italian: Mario Rossi m
• Polish: Jan Kowalski (pl) m pers
• Portuguese: Manuel Dos Santos m (Portugal), João da Silva m (Brazil), José da Silva m, Zé da Silva m
• Russian: Ива́н Ива́нович m anim (Iván Ivánovič)
• Serbo-Croatian: Marko Marković m

See also

• Joe Schmoe

Further reading

• “John Q. Public n.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang, Jonathon Green, 2016–present.
• John Q. Public on Wikipedia.Wikipedia