Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. An important or self-important person: "a panjandrum of the publishing business” ( Nat Hentoff).
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. An imaginary personage of much power or pretension; a burlesque potentate, plenipotentiary, or Great Mogul.
Wiktionary
- n. An important, powerful or influential person.
- n. A self-important or pretentious person.
- n. A massive, rocket-propelled, explosive-laden cart designed by the British military during World War II.
WordNet 3.0
- n. an important or influential (and often overbearing) person
Etymologies
- After the Grand Panjandrum, a character in a nonsense farrago written by Samuel Foote (1720-1777).
Examples
“On Monday the Rugby Football Union's outgoing grand panjandrum pointed out that his current contract is only for six months, which may mean that he is not entitled to the reported extra £250,000 for his part in creating a record profit of £8.7m for the governing body in the most recent financial year.”
The Guardian: Wales must keep faith with Gary Speed's youthful legacy | Richard Williams
“For there rose in his pomp Sir Peter Tapsell, the Father of the House, and a panjandrum who makes the average double-breasted MP look like Norman Wisdom on a bad day.”
The Guardian: Comprehensive spending review: Now for the bonfire of the civilians
“Even though Marina begins to succumb to the narcosis of the jungle, she senses that she is being groomed to replace Dr. Swenson as chief researcher and tribal panjandrum.”
“Some in the French press and even a French government minister are suggesting that the 62-year-old Socialist Party panjandrum may have been set up by his rivals.”
“Labour's Denis MacShane asked her to confirm that "this great panjandrum, Lord Davies, who is going to get more women on to boards, is a man?”
The Guardian: Sex at work: May rules MP offside | Simon Hoggart's sketch
“The great panjandrum maintains that no deal has been signed with any channel.”
“And busy Americans have never been fussy about the qualifications of even the most exotic panjandrum.”
“To help them, the committee heard from Dr Malcolm Jack, the clerk of the house, and the grandest panjandrum in the palace.”
The Guardian: MPs putting Dr Malcolm Jack on the rack over phone hack
“Canada is a famous underperformer in the creation of interesting news, so much so that the New Republic once pronounced “Worthwhile Canadian Initiative” (the actual title of a column by the late New York Times panjandrum Flora Lewis) the most boring headline in human history.”
“But editing a daily or Sunday would have given him less time for writing books and might have slowed his development into the nationally admired commentator – or "great panjandrum", as he would probably have said of someone else – that he became.”
The Guardian: 'Under the briskness, he was a softie' | Julian Barnes
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘panjandrum’.
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Nincompoopery
Words that clatter and tumble
nincompoop, pettyfoggery, gaberlunzie, cattywampus, weisenheimer, katzenjammer, hecklephone, loblolly, carriwitchet, flibbertyjibbet, hornswoggle, thimblerigger and 159 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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Nonce
A nonce word is a word used only "for the nonce"—to meet a need that is not expected to recur. Quark, for example, was formerly a nonce word in English, appearing only in James Joyce's Finnegans Wa...
kwyjibo, fnord, wug, blicket, dax, toma, pimwit, zav, speff, tulver, gazzer, fem and 21 more...
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Game Change vocab
jejune, enmity, fabulist, ostensible, hustings, cipher, panjandrum, troika, verboten, pro forma, triumvir
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Words of Anathem
Orth, Fluccish, and English words that play a role in Neal Stephenson's Anathem.
praxis, avout, anathem, extramuros, intramuros, saunt, concent, bulshytt, requiem, to go hundred, arbre, mathic and 84 more...
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ahmedabad
babbitt, Pickwickian, tartuffery, bumbledom, panjandrum, schadenfreude, pathological
johnbdonovan Often humorous. John Donovan is the grand panjandrum of fabricated Turkish proverbs on all subjects. Jul 11, 2009
teflon Just popped into my head while looking at my Gmail contacts list. I think it may have been my sleep-deprived brain sticking together parts of different names, but the more I think about it, the less I can be sure which ones. Feb 3, 2008
born2badored http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/208.html Feb 1, 2007