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From:doctor@dictionary.com
To:wordoftheday@lists.lexico.com
Subject:panjandrum: Dictionary.com Word of the Day
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Date:Tue, 16 Oct 2001 00:00:00 -0700 (PDT)

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Word of the Day for Tuesday October 16, 2001:

panjandrum \pan-JAN-druhm\, noun:
An important personage or pretentious official.

Needless to say, when governors and ministers and the
panjandrums of British public life asked these appointed
advisers and those from whose ranks they were largely drawn
for their views on democratic development, they gave the
answers that might have been expected.
--Christopher Patten, East and West

And so I have appointed myself the chairman, High
Panjandrum, Grand Inquisitor--and sole member--of a
grievance committee of my own making.
--Alan K. Simpson, [1]Right in the Old Gazoo
_________________________________________________________

Panjandrum was coined by Samuel Foote (17201777) in a piece of
nonsense writing:

So she went into the garden to cut a cabbage-leaf to make
an apple-pie; and at the same time a great she-bear, coming
up the street, pops its head into the shop. "What! No
soap?" So he died, and she very imprudently married the
barber: and there were present the Picninnies, and the
Joblillies, and the Garyulies, and the grand Panjandrum
himself, with the little round button at top, and they all
fell to playing the game of catch-as-catch-can till the
gunpowder ran out at the heels of their boots.

It was composed on the spot to challenge actor Charles
Macklin's claim that he could memorize anything. Macklin is
said to have refused to repeat a word of it.

References

1. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0688113583/lexico


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