Tag: Charles Macklin

origin of ‘pandemonium’ (place of uproar and chaos)

.Reading time 4 minutes.

MEANING   a place or state of utter confusion and uproar   ORIGIN   In Paradise Lost (1667), the English poet John Milton (1608-74) invented Pandæmonium, with a capital P, as the name for the capital of Hell, containing the council chamber of the Evil Spirits. This noun is from ancient Greek παν- (= pan-), […]

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origin of ‘panjandrum’ (pompous self-important official)

.Reading time 10 minutes.

  cover of The Great Panjandrum Himself (1885), a picture book based on the text attributed to Samuel Foote, by the English artist and illustrator Randolph Caldecott (1846-86) – photograph: Aleph-Bet Books     MEANING   a pompous self-important official or person of rank   ORIGIN The word is supposed to have been coined in […]

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