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I'm looking for comparative/superlative versions of versatile - synonyms which should mean "more versatile" and "extremely versatile"

Here's the background:

Over on meta.so, I've proposed a new 3-tiered badge for users who have high rep across multiple SE sites.

At bronze I'd call it Versatile. Can't think of titles for Silver and Gold.

I only have "Multifaceted" and "All-rounder" right now. Any other suggestions?

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JoseK
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  • Going by the current badge convention, having strictly nouns would be a good idea. – Jimi Oke Dec 22 '10 at 06:06
  • I would only comment that "know-it-all" is a bit derogatory... either of "multifaceted" or "polymath" would be a nice badge name, IMHO. –  Dec 22 '10 at 06:49

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  • polymath
  • sage
  • Da Vinci
  • Renaissance Man (Person?)
  • homo universalis
  • swiss army knife
  • protean
Mitch Schwartz
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    polymath is a truly excellent suggestion! – Jimi Oke Dec 22 '10 at 05:59
  • Going by your list, here would be my badge titles: bronze - polymath, silver - Homo Universalis, gold - Proteus (godlike status, beyond human!). – Jimi Oke Dec 22 '10 at 06:08
  • @Jimi Oke: Thanks for doing that classification, Polymath was a strong contender for Gold - as it was a new word (for me). I'll wait for the community votes on this. – JoseK Dec 22 '10 at 06:11
  • Polymath sounds excellent to me for silver or gold. Homo Universalis and Proteus/Protean don’t seem so good: Homo universalis is apt but obscure; Protean has the wrong connotations entirely — it suggests you can appear as many different things, not that you have many different skills. – PLL Dec 22 '10 at 06:21
  • Thanks for the comments, everyone. I'm surprised nobody's gone for "swiss army knife" :P – Mitch Schwartz Dec 22 '10 at 06:25
  • @PLL I believe "protean" has positive connotations (and the desired denotation) largely within the acting community. – Mitch Schwartz Dec 22 '10 at 06:26
  • On Swiss Army Knife: Well, while it indicates one can do many things, it does not necessarily indicate the person knows a lot! – Jimi Oke Dec 22 '10 at 06:50
  • @PLL: Indeed, but if Proteus has the ability to appear as many different personalities, he could certainly appear with different skills as well. The would-be Proteus appears on various SE sites with professional or near-professional knowledge on those many subjects. – Jimi Oke Dec 22 '10 at 06:54
  • @Jimi Oke: Polymath might lead to confusion as it has been previously proposed as a gold version of the Generalist badge. – RegDwigнt Dec 22 '10 at 12:54
  • I'll go in for swiss army knife. :) (I would not put it at higher than bronze, though.) – John Y Dec 23 '10 at 04:13
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Some synonyms (positive, comparative or superlative) and related nouns:

  • well-rounded
  • multifaceted
  • multitalented
  • resourceful
  • Jack of many trades (possibly bronze/silver)
  • Master of many trades (possibly gold)
  • handy
Jimi Oke
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Beyond inventing a word like "versatilitudinous", the best ideas I can come up with are "multitalented", "well-rounded", and "Jack-of-all-trades".

Hellion
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“Jack of all trades” could be a good bronze. Like many bronze badges, it’s not an unqualified complement; it has the desired connotation of “good at a lot of things”, but the implicit “…and master of none” keeps open the motivation to push on to the silver or gold.

PLL
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  • but if you see some of the superhumans are actually a master in at least one site. http://stackexchange.com/leagues – JoseK Dec 22 '10 at 06:22
  • Indeed, true! Which is why the “master of none” is just suggestively hinted towards, not expressly implied :-) – PLL Dec 22 '10 at 06:26