panjandrum

Tom Wolfe, The Right Stuff, 1979, pages 73-74

“Regardless of how much he thought of himself, no flight surgeon dared position himself above the pilots in his squadron in the way he conducted himself before them: i.e., it was hard to be a consummate panjandrum, the way a typical doctor was.”

panjandrum |panˈjandrəm|nouna person who has or claims to have a great deal of authority or influence.ORIGIN late 19th cent.: from Grand Panjandrum, an invented phrase in a nonsense verse (1755) by S. Foote.