This week’s theme
Eponyms

This week’s words
Hoyle
Houdini
tawdry
McDonaldization
pooh-bah


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AWADmail 986

Next week’s theme
High-scoring words in Scrabble

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(POO-bah)

MEANING:

noun:
1. A person who holds a high office or has great influence.
2. A pompous, self-important person.
3. A person holding many offices or positions of power.

ETYMOLOGY:

After Pooh-Bah, a government official in Gilbert & Sullivan’s 1885 operetta The Mikado. Pooh-Bah holds all the high offices of the state (except Lord High Executioner), including relating to complaints about himself. He is also known as the Lord High Everything Else. Earliest documented use: 1886.

USAGE:

“Yeah, yeah. I know every sport has a federation, a long history and a stuffy pooh-bah in charge.”
Allan Maki; Blog Hits; The Globe and Mail (Toronto, Canada); Aug 12, 2008.

See more usage examples of pooh-bapooh-bah in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: