FanShot

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This sentence appeared in an article on Hardball Talk about the White Sox: "...journeyman Philip Humber is penciled in as the No. 5 starter." "Journeyman" doesn't mean "a guy who gets traded a lot." It means "a guy who puts in his day's work," unspectacular but competent and professional. Like, say, Grudz. Or Randa. It comes from the medieval guilds; a journeyman was an artisan who had qualified as a professional (had completed his apprenticeship) but was not a master yet. The word comes from the French "jour," day, because journeymen had the right to be paid daily, rather than weekly or monthly or whatever. Phil Humber hasn't earned the title "journeyman" yet.