Some folks look forward to Friday because the next day they'll be away from the officious official who runs the office: for two days, anyway.
That brings the Lemming to the word panjandrum. That's:
- A person who is important or influential
- Often overbearing
- An important or self-important person
(The Free Online Dictionary) - A powerful personage or pretentious official
- Origin:
Grand Panjandrum, burlesque title of an imaginary personage in some nonsense lines by Samuel Foote
First Known Use: 1856
- Origin:
- "The Grand Panjandrum"
Samuel Foote, via an 1820 novel and Wikisource (1755)
"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."Allegedly-related posts:
(Samuel Foote, via Maria Edgeworth)
- "Gaylord: A Car, Another Car, a Company, a Town, and a Block of Wax"
(November 18, 2011) - "Flabbergasted: What's a Flabber, and How Does One Gast It?"
(October 21, 2011) - "Pickles Aren't Always Pickled"
(October 18, 2011) - "Sesquipedalian!"
(April 3, 2010) - "What's a Vook about Hopping Rotochutes with Gigavision, Spying on a Shootout?"
(January 14, 2010)
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