[‘ (A mock title for) a mysterious (freq. imaginary) personage of great power or authority; a pompous or pretentious official; a self-important person in authority. Also Grand Panjandrum, Great Panjandrum.']
Pronunciation: Brit. /panˈdʒandrəm/, U.S. /ˌpænˈdʒændr(ə)m/
Inflections: Plural *panjandrums*, *panjandra*.
Forms: 18 *pangendrum*, 18 *panjandarum*, 18– *panjandrum*. Also with capital initial.
Etymology:Apparently < pan- comb. form + an arbitrary second element. (Any deliberate echo of pangeran n. seems unlikely.)
The word is supposed to have been coined in 1754 or 1755 as part of a farrago of nonsense composed by Samuel Foote (1720–77), actor and dramatist, to test the memory of his fellow actor Charles Macklin, who had asserted that he could repeat anything after hearing it once. In the first published version the relevant passage (attributed to Foote) reads as follows:
1825 M. Edgeworth /Harry & Lucy Concl./ II. 153 And there were present the Picninnies, and the Joblillies, and the Garyulies, and the Grand Panjandrum himself, with the little round button at top.
The composition of the passage has also been attributed to the actor James Quin (1693–1766): see N. & Q. (1850) 16 Nov. 405.
*1.* (A mock title for) a mysterious (freq. imaginary) personage of great power or authority; a pompous or pretentious official; a self-important person in authority. Also Grand Panjandrum, Great Panjandrum.
In quot. 1825 in extended use, of a particularly showy flower.
Quot. 18252 follows shortly after the passage quoted in the etymological note above, of which some quotations are extended echoes.
1825 M. Edgeworth /Harry & Lucy Concl./ II. 46 He [/sc./ the gardener] began to praise his carnations… One he called../The envy of the world, or the great panjandrum/.
1825 M. Edgeworth /Harry & Lucy Concl./ II. 153 Lucy said, that if it had not been for the grand Panjandrum, she was almost sure she should have been able to say it; but she was so much surprised by meeting the grand Panjandrum himself again, and so diverted by his little round button at top, that she could think of nothing else.
1861 /Vanity Fair (N.Y.)/ 7 Sept. 117/2 Mr. Greeley has..again risen to power as Chief Editor and Grand Panjandrum of the paper.
1867 F. H. Ludlow /Little Brother/ 39 The little wide-awake, like the Panjandrum ‘with the little round button at the top’.
1887 /Pall Mall Gaz./ 11 Oct. 1 Wanting to cut a fine figure in high life, as official panjandrums generally do want.
1938 C. Connolly /Enemies of Promise/ vii. 57 The panjandrums of the nineteenth century..give way to the realists.
1955 A. Huxley /Let./ 11 May (1969) 743, I am under the protective wing of a bright young researcher..and his wife. They..introduce me to the Grand Panjandrums, who mainly speak with german accents.
1996 B. Sewell in /Week/ 14 Dec. 22/3 A dog’s dinner of elementary art history dotted with old favourites and what the panjandrums believe to be good for us.
*2.* Ceremonial fuss or formality; rigmarole. Now rare.
1860 /Vanity Fair (N.Y.)/ 2 June 358/1 Probably the sublimest spectacle the Embassy will witness in the city will take place after the first grand dinner and panjandrum at the Metropolitan.
1883 J. Nasmyth /Autobiogr./ xv. 281, I did not care for all this panjandrum of punctiliousness.
1895 /Scribner’s Mag./ July 59/1 After the grand panjandrum of Commencement exercises at the colleges is over, there ought to be a pause in the intellectual activity of the nation for at least sixty days.
1999 /Independent/(Nexis) 17 Mar. 13 In the rue Kleber, they were even saying that the whole panjandrum might close down as soon as tonight.