Poohbah

If you attended the Hendrix Players' production of Hot Mikado last week, you may have noticed a character named Pooh-Bah, who serves in various government roles (in fact all of them except the Lord High Executioner; he is "the Lord High Everything Else"). Hot Mikado is a somewhat updated adaptation of W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan's Opperetta the Mikado, and naturally the original also features the character. From this nonsensical, silly, pretend-Japanese name, we derive the word "poobah" meaning, according to the AHD "A pompous or ostentatious official, especially one who performs none of many offices held" or more generally "A person who holds high office." This word is still used, especially in the latter sense; you might hear a powerful leader be jokingly referred to as "the grand poohbah."