bumbledomn.
/ˈbʌmbldəm/, U.S. /ˈbəmbəldəm/ depreciative.
Petty local bureaucracy; officious and pompous behaviour by minor officials; officials of this type collectively.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > pride > pomposity > [noun]
pompositya1538
ventosity?1545
pontificality1600
bigness1634
fast1673
swell1724
bumbledom1847
highfalutin1847
highfalutination1858
pompousness1870
largeness1887
falutin1921
hugaboo1930
stuffed-shirtedness1981
fantasia-
1847 Express 10 Sept. 2/2 That head-quarter of Bumbledom, the Mansion-house of the City of London.
1856 Sat. Rev. 2 12/1 The collective Bumbledom of Westminster.
1865 Spectator 22 Apr. 427 There spoke the true spirit of parish Bumbledom.
1921 S. E. Morison Maritime Hist. Mass. xxii. 340 A banquet, not for owners and bankers and all bumbledom, but for the mothers, wives, and sweethearts of the workingmen who built the ship.
1991 Times 9 July 15/1 Bumbledom can be thanked for prevaricating over the future of the Hampton's site for a full 32 years.
2011 Daily Tel. (Nexis) 23 July The Blue Badge Scheme..is maladministered with varying degrees of inefficiency and bumbledom by county councils throughout the country.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2018; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
<
n.1847