Pooh Bah

American  

[poo bah] / ˈpu ˌbɑ /

Or pooh bah,

noun

1. a person who holds several positions, especially ones that give bureaucratic importance.

2. a leader, authority, or other important person.

   one of the Pooh Bahs of the record industry.

3. a pompous, self-important person.

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Pooh-Bah British  

/ ˈpuːˈbɑː /

noun

1. a pompous self-important official holding several offices at once and fulfilling none of them

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Pooh-Bah Cultural  

1. A self-important person of high position and great influence. Pooh-Bah is a character in Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta The Mikado; his title is Lord-High-Everything-Else.

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Etymology

Origin of Pooh Bah

First recorded in 1880–85; after a character in Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado, who holds all of the high offices of state simultaneously and uses them for personal gain

Example Sentences

Driven from Peking, where he was Pooh Bah in 1922, by Super-Tuchun Wu, Chang seeks to oust Wu and President Tsao Kun and resume his lordly sway in the Capital.

From Time Magazine Archive

Ayling has departed from our midst, and rumour says that he is leading a sort of Pooh Bah existence at Brigade Headquarters.

From All in It : K(1) Carries On A Continuation of the First Hundred Thousand by Hay, Ian

It happened in the second act where Ko-Ko, Pooh Bah and Pitti Sing are prostrate on the floor in the presence of the Emperor.

From The Secrets of a Savoyard by Lytton, Henry A.

Descended from a primordial atomic globule, you know, like Pooh Bah.

From A Prefect's Uncle by Wodehouse, P. G. (Pelham Grenville)

He doesn’t know it’s only Pooh Bah speaking from different corners of the stage. 

From All Roads Lead to Calvary by Jerome, Jerome K. (Jerome Klapka)

Related Words

• celebrity
• dignitary
• luminary