See Also: panjandrum(dictionary)

panjandrum (iou)



panjandrum noun. L19.
[Invented word occurring, as Grand Panjandrum, in an 18th-cent. nonsense composition.]
(A mock title for) an imaginary or mysterious personage of much power, or a person of great pretensions; a pompous or pretentious official; an important or authoritative person. Freq. in Grand Panjandrum, Great Panjandrum.
Washington Post The panjandrums may next advise local citizens to stop drinking water. Nature R. V. Jones, the great panjandrum of the arcana of scientific intelligence.