Pooterish

English

Etymology

From the name of the character Charles Pooter in George and Weedon Grossmith's 1892 novel The Diary of a Nobody.

Adjective

Pooterish (comparative more Pooterish, superlative most Pooterish)

1. Characteristic of the character Charles Pooter; of modest social status, especially when having pretensions of greater significance and status.
   • 1980, The Listener - Volume 103, page 378:

     The volume begins, though, with Byron being petty and Pooterish — if it is possible for such a non-family man to be Pooterish.

   • 2008, Chris Rojek, Brit-Myth: Who Do the British Think They Are?, →ISBN:

     The vegetative eugenics practised in mild-mannered cul-de-sacs, the extreme prejudice of poisoning some blameless green thing while feeding another, are symptoms of Pooterish yearning for a fascist order (p. 161).

   • 2013, Tony Whitehead, Mike Leigh, →ISBN, page 43:

     That said, it produces a great comic creation in Alan Dixon (Richard Kane), a splendidly Pooterish middle-aged clerk, fixated with unctuous reverence on the activities of British royalty and the aristocracy, including one or two of the firm's clients.