panjandrum

[ pan-jan-druhm ]

noun

1. a self-important or pretentious official.

panjandrum

/ pænˈdʒændrəm /

noun

1. a pompous self-important official or person of rank

Word History and Origins

Origin of panjandrum¹

1745–55; pseudo-Latin word (based on pan- ) coined by Samuel Foote (1720–77), English dramatist and actor

Word History and Origins

Origin of panjandrum¹

C18: after a character, the Grand Panjandrum, in a nonsense work (1755) by Samuel Foote, English playwright and actor

Example Sentences

Roberts’ smoldering, high-beam intensity caught the attention of Joe Papp, a panjandrum of New York theater who cast Roberts in a Public Theater production of the Civil War drama “Rebel Women.”

From Los Angeles Times

But you don’t have to see exact moral equivalence between Nazi Germany and Communist China to wonder whether today’s international Olympic panjandrums are capable of learning anything from their predecessors’ experience.

From Washington Post

That’s the date by which Trump, the panjandrum of the White House podium, has said he would like to start reopening the shuttered US economy.

From The Guardian

Two UK Tory panjandrums - architects of the PM's surprise victory - flew to Washington eight weeks before the US election and advised the Bush team to focus attacks on Clinton's character.

From BBC

“Do you remember what all the panjandrums had to say?”

From The New Yorker

Related Words

• administrator
• agent
• bureaucrat
• civil servant
• commissioner
• director
• executive
• leader
• manager
• minister
• officer
• representative
• secretary