panjandrum


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pan·jan·drum

 (păn-jăn′drəm)
n.
An important or self-important person: "a panjandrum of the publishing business" (Nat Hentoff).

[After the Grand Panjandrum, , a character in a nonsense farrago written by Samuel Foote (1720-1777).]
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

panjandrum

(pænˈdʒændrəm) or

panjandarum

n, pl -ra (-rə)
a pompous self-important official or person of rank
[C18: after a character, the Grand Panjandrum, in a nonsense work (1755) by Samuel Foote, English playwright and actor]
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

pan•jan•drum

(pænˈdʒæn drəm)

n.
a self-important or pretentious official.
[1745–55; pseudo-Latin word (based on pan-) coined by Samuel Foote (1720–77), English playwright and actor]
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.

panjandrum

designation for a pompous official, taken from a story by Samuel Foote(1755).
See also: Bureaucracy
-Ologies & -Isms. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.panjandrum - an important or influential (and often overbearing) personpanjandrum - an important or influential (and often overbearing) person
important person, influential person, personage - a person whose actions and opinions strongly influence the course of events
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
Translations

panjandrum

[pænˈdʒændrəm] Njefazo m, mandamás m inv
he's the great panjandrumes el archipámpano
Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

panjandrum

n (hum, pej)Wichtigtuer(in) m(f) (pej)
Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007
References in classic literature ?
Why don't you get some of your friends to go for that wooden-faced panjandrum - eh?
Let them know that their great panjandrum has got to go too, to make room for the Future of the Proletariat.
The creature proclaimed, 'Those are universal truths coming from the grand panjandrum in the Palace!'-making me wake up covered in sweat.
There's also a working version of a Second World War weapon called The Great Panjandrum. And he'll team up with pals to build a trio of Mad Max-style post-apocalyptic monsters using junk cars and scrapyard salvage.
And I hope the PTI knows where the panjandrum's officials are supposed to go.
With the electoral panjandrum set to roll towards 25th of July several late items for consideration have emerged in recent days.
MSNBC's former Countdown panjandrum has certainly accepted and even thrived on the idea that he was born to put the tribe back in diatribe.
In it Ross told me that he had one more guest editor lined up and after that I could be the Grand Panjandrum of the column.
Clive Turner's response was little more than an ad hominem (and therefore illogical) attack on the councilor using terms such as 'unreasonable, high-handed, self-important, pompous and -- hilariously- 'panjandrum'.
The Arabs will now wait to see if the Quartet will repeat its folly by appointing an even more unsuitable candidate--a truly difficult task--although many in the region think the whole panjandrum must be abandoned.
TRAHERNE: Sounds like the march of the Great Panjandrum. (30)