PANJANDRUM

Thanks to Tom Miller, I am now able to use today's word.

I was unsure how I would recognize a panjandrum until I attended yesterday's meeting; as the meeting progressed it quickly became clear that there was one panjandrum in attendance.

DEF: a self-important or pretentious official.(dictionary.com)

Etymology of panjandrum: mock name for a pompous personage, 1755, invented by Samuel Foote (1720-77) to test the memory of actor old Macklin (who said he could repeat anything after hearing it once) in a long passage full of nonsense.