Pronounced: pa-NAP-tick, adj
Notes: I knew something of this word, but was somewhat influenced away
Yesterday’s word
The word Dogberry refers to “a pompous, incompetent, self-important official”
First usage
Our word came into English in the early 1800s
Background / Comments
Our word comes after a character in Shakespeare’s play Much Ado About Nothing. Dobsberry was a constable in that play and manifests the attributes noted above. It is words like our word that make me aware of my lack of what I call a “classical” education: While we studied a couple of Shakespeare’s plays, I don’t have a general knowledge of his more well-known plays. Similarly, there are famous operas that have impacted society, and I know little of those. I can recognize the names of many Shakespeare plays (like the one that is the basis for our word), but I know very little about the plot.
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 