high muckamuck

also high muckety-muck
n. Slang
An important, often overbearing person.

[From Chinook Jargon hayo makamak, plenty to eat.]

WORD HISTORY   One might not immediately associate the word high muckamuck with fur traders and Native Americans, but it seems that English borrowed the term from Chinook Jargon, a pidgin language combining words from English, French, Nootka, Chinook, and the Salishan languages that was formerly used by them in the Pacific Northwest. In this language hayo makamak meant "plenty to eat" and is recorded in that sense in English contexts, the first one dated 1853, in which the phrase is spelled Hiou Muckamuck. In 1856 we find the first recorded instance of the word meaning "pompous person, person of importance," in the Democratic State Journal published in Sacramento: "The professors-the high 'Muck-a-Mucks'-tried fusion, and produced confusion."

Origin: 1856

Americans scorned the tired old titles of Europe. We had no emperors or kings, no princes or dukes. Instead, we invented our own fanciful names for leaders, borrowing freely from Indian languages. Somehow, however, dignified Indian titles like sachem (1622) when applied to not-so-noble American politicians seemed more mocking than reverent.

The grand mockery of them all was an utter and probably deliberate mistranslation. It was from the Chinook Jargon, a mixture of Chinook Indian language, English, and French that was used as a trade language throughout the Pacific Northwest. Thanks to researcher Charles Lovell, we know exactly where high muckamuck came from. Muckamuck means "food"; high means "much or plenty"; so high muckamuck means "lots of food." It was used to advertise a grocery store in the Portland Oregonian in 1853: "Thomas Pritchard, General Store: Hiou Muckamuck of all kinds."

That was enough for one California wag, who wrote in the Democratic State Journal of Sacramento for November 1, 1856, "The professors--the high 'Muck-a-Mucks'--tried fusion, and produced confusion." Not surprisingly, Mark Twain picked up the phrase, writing in a letter of 1866, "Not if I was High-You-Muck-a-Muck and King of Wawhoo." There have been many variations, including high mucky-muck, high muckety-muck, and high-monkey-muck, and they all refer to a person who assumes an air of importance.

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The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: an important or influential (and often overbearing) person
  Synonyms: very important person, VIP, high-up, dignitary, panjandrum

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