panjandrum
(pænˈdʒændrəm)
In origin, a nonsense word (simulating compounds of pan-, and burlesquing a title), occurring in the farrago of nonsense composed by S. Foote to test the memory of old Macklin, who had asserted that he could repeat anything after once hearing it.
| 1755 Foote in Q. Rev. (1854) XCV. 516 And there were present the Picninnies, and the Joblillies, and the Garyulies, and the Grand Panjandrum himself, with the little round button at top. 1825 M. Edgeworth Harry & Lucy Concl. II. 153. 1867 F. H. Ludlow Little Brother 39 The little wide-awake, like the Panjandrum ‘with the little round button at the top’. |
2. Hence a. A mock title for an imaginary or mysterious personage of much power, or a personage of great pretensions; a self-constituted high mightiness or magnifico; a local magnate or official of grand airs; a pompous pretender.
| [1825 M. Edgeworth Harry & Lucy Concl. II. 46 He [the gardener] began to praise his carnations... One he called..‘The envy of the world, or the great panjandrum’.] a 1880 FitzGerald (Brewer), He was the Great Panjandrum of the place. 1880 Brewer Reader's Hand-bk. Allusions, Panjandrum (The Grand), any village potentate or Brummagem magnate. 1887 Pall Mall G. 11 Oct. 1 Wanting to cut a fine figure in high life, as official panjandrums generally do want. 1892 F. Harrison in Pall Mall G. 19 Sept. 4/3, I do not think the future of Ireland can be affected by the utterances of the Panjandrum of Biblical Science and Scotch Presbyterianism. 1896 A. Morrison Child of the Jago 148 A sudden quacksalver, a Panjandrum of philanthropy, who undertook to abolish poverty and sin. 1900 Pall Mall G. 16 Feb. 3/2 So will the great British public, even though it may scarcely know what sort of a Panjandrum a Senior Wrangler is. |
b. Official and ceremonial fuss or formality.
| 1883 Nasmyth Autobiog. xv. 281, I did not care for all this panjandrum of punctiliousness. |