I am looking for a word. It refers to a person who is given a small amount of power over some menial task or item and lets that authority become an overwhelming and unreasonable dictatorial type pattern of behavior.

"You can't have pens from the supply closet without filling out a requisition form, asking and receiving verbal permission, and describing your exact activity with such company resources."

It was included in a "word of the day" calendar I saw years ago and I'm drawing a blank.

Great question.

I can't remember either, but I seem to recall a name rather than a single word. Is there a dictionary of eponyms on line? I can't find one.

Martinet?

Welcome, Robert. It is always nice to have new people here.

There certainly should be a word like that. Goofy's word is interesting ("strict disciplinarian), but I am not sure it is what you mean. Arnie, any ideas? Bob? Bethree? Sattva?

I don't know of a word that fits either, I thought maybe someone else would know. Maybe, it is a new word that needs to be created.

Prig gets half of it, but not all. Still cogitating...

The decidedly offensive and non-pc phrase in common use where I come from is "Little Hitler" but nowadays people are rightly wary of comparing everything to Nazis.

The best I could come up with was

lordling
princeling
petty potentate,

but I think Bob's is far better.

quote:

Originally posted by Geoff:
Is there a dictionary of eponyms on line?

I'd forgotten about this one.

OK, Shufitz! Didn't you put it together?

How about "bumbledom" for the word we can't recall? https://en.oxforddictionaries....definition/bumbledom

Oh my gosh Robert, your post immediately put me in mind of a certain bureaucrat, back when I worked in purchasing depts for big arch-constr firms. Purchasing was the lowest-prestige dept in a world where engrs were once free to name their fave bidders based on eqpt design, but got reined in mid-20thC so as to promote more competition & eliminate corruption. W/n 20 yrs this firm segregated bidder's list to a dept w/n the dept, staffed by paper-passing form-filling bean-counters. This mini-tyrant had graduated from mail-room thro office-supplies to a position of tail wags dog, & he loved wagging that dog!

If there is a word for such a creature, I want to know it!

"Little Napoleon" is all I can come up with.

And more recently we have Nurse Ratched and The Trunchbull.

But all of these are people with the trait, not the trait itself.

quote:

Originally posted by haberdasher:
"Little Napoleon" is all I can come up with.

Napoleon WAS little. As was Alexander The Great. So why didn't Danny DiVito conquer the world?

I think Geoff's word is it: bumbledon. Great find, Geoff!

If it is British, it's probably jobsworth.

I'd forgotten "jobsworth". That would definitely be right in the UK.

That one looks perfect, too. Somehow I knew our British counterparts would come up with something.

You guys are great!! I think Jobsworth is the exact right word. I've struggled for so long to find this expressed so succinctly and I appreciate your help!

Just caught up on this thread thro robert's post. Love this word "jobsworth"!

The American version wuld be "Trumpsworth."

Presumably the Apple version would be a Wozniakworth.

Doesn't "Jobsworth" work for Apple also?

I love the word, too, Bethree!