WORD FOR THE DAY

Your word for today is: Mamamouchi, n.

† Mamamouchi, n.

Forms:  16 Mammamouchy,   16–17 Mamamouchi,   17 Mammamouchi.
 
Etymology: <  French mamamouchi, an imaginary Turkish title (invented by Molière in Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (1670) iv. iii, where it is pretended to have been conferred by the Sultan upon M. Jourdain).
 
Obs.
 
  Occas.: a pompous-sounding title; (also) a person assuming such a title; a pretender to elevated dignity, viewed as an object of derision.
 
1672  E. Ravenscroft Citizen turn'd Gentl. iv. i. 84 He will make you a Mamamouchi, which is the greatest honour and dignity among the Turks.
 
1673  Dryden Assignation Prol. sig. A6, You must have Mamamouchi, such a Fop As would appear a Monster in a Shop.
 
a1734  R. North Examen (1740) ii. iv. §5. 233 So then he drops his mammamouchi Outside of Oates's Plot in the dark, no more to be heard of in that Reign.
 
1749  H. Walpole Lett. (1846) II. 287 This ridiculous Mamamouchi [sc. the Duke of Newcastle, Chancellor of Cambridge University].
 
Compounds
 
  General attrib.
 
1673 Mem. Madam Charlton 12 Charlton fancies nothing less than to be made a Duke, or some strange Mammamouchy-Titulado.

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