Pronounced: GROG-rum, noun
Notes: This word is completely new to me
Yesterday’s word
The word pooh-bah is
- a person holding many public or private offices
- a person in high position or of great influence
First usage
Our word came into English in the late 1800s
Background / Comments
As I noted yesterday, I have heard this word — usually in the phrase “grand pooh-bah”; I deduce from contexts where I’ve seen it that it is a derisive description of someone who thinks he is important. In fact, our word comes from the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta The Mikado, which contains a character named Pooh-Bah, who was an arrogant, buffoonish bureaucrat. His title was “Lord High Everything Else” – he agrees to accept many important government offices (along with their salaries). He would do anything if the bribe is big enough, and he enjoyed showing off his importance. The Mikado came out if 1885, and it wasn’t long after that when pooh-bah (also Pooh-Bah, Pooh Bah, Poo-Ba, and poobah) started to be used for someone who holds either many offices or a high position usually with great pompousness or self-importance.
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 