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May 27, 2011
This week's themeWords to describe people This week's words tyro reactionary concupiscent callow panjandrum 
The Great Panjandrum
Illustration: Randolph Caldecott From the picture book The Great Panjandrum Himself based on Samuel Foote's text This week's comments AWADmail 465 Next week's theme Words made with combining forms 
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with Anu Gargpanjandrum
PRONUNCIATION:
(pan-JAN-druhm)
MEANING:
noun:
An important or self-important person.
ETYMOLOGY:
The word is said to have been coined by dramatist and actor Samuel Foote
(1720-1777) as part of a nonsensical passage to test the memory of his fellow
actor Charles Macklin who claimed to be able to repeat anything after hearing
it once. Earliest documented use: 1825, in the novel "Harry and Lucy Concluded"
in which the author Maria Edgeworth attributes the word to Foote.
USAGE:
"Another man coming to hear Fry was Graham Turner, the owner, chairman,
former manager and grand panjandrum of Hereford United."Brian Viner; Unexpected Frictions Follow Ferguson's Fall; The Independent (London, UK); Nov 14, 2009. See more usage examples of panjandrum in Vocabulary.com's dictionary. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Why is it that one can look at a lion or a planet or an owl or at someone's finger as long as one pleases, but looking into the eyes of another person is, if prolonged past a second, a perilous affair? -Walker Percy, author (1916-1990)
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