Dumbly's title...

[Rita Winston]

No: HPFGUIDX 1961

--- In HPforGrownups at egroups.com, "Scott " <harry_potter00 at y...> 
wrote:
> 
> Headmaster: ALBUS DUMBLEDORE
> (Order of Merlin, First class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme 
> Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)
> 
> ...Hmmm, most these are pretty self- explanatory except for 
> Mugwump...Any Ideas what this could be?

In this context, 'mugwump' means 'big shot'. 

In the first half of the Nineteenth Century in USA, there was a 
political secret society named The Indian Lodge of Chief Mugwump 
whose agenda was to compromise the slavery/abolition question. A 
famous cartoonist at the time drew a cartoon with the caption: "It's 
a Mugwump: his Mug on one side of the fence and his Wump is on the 
other."  In elementary school I was taught that they were named for 
that cartoon, but later I learned that the cartoon was based on the 
name of their club. Tim just now looked in our 1987 Random House 
nabridged Dictionary and found that 'mugwump' in the name of the 
political club was based on the Algonquin Indian word for 'war 
chief': mugquomp, syncopated from muggum-quomp. 

I'm confused as to HOW MANY different titles are on that letterhead: 
that is, is Order of Merlin, First class, Grand Sorceror all one 
title and does Chief Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International 
Confederation of Wizards means Chief Warlock and Supreme Mugwump of 
the International Confederation of Wizards, and is the Supreme 
Mugwump of the Int'l Confederation of Wizards more like the 
Secretary-General of the UN, the President of USA, or the President 
of the Archaeological Institute of America or the American Chemical 
Society?

And what is WARLOCK? Dumbledore is Chief Warlock (of something), in 
PoA, a group of rowdy warlocks are getting at a table in The Three 
Broomsticks, etc. It's not just another word for male magic users: 
they are always called 'wizards'. Until JKR tells us, my current 
theory is that 'warlock' is M.P. -- an elected representative to the 
wizard parliament, which is called Warlocks' Convention: "Dragon 
breeding was outlawed by the Warlocks' Convention of 1709, everyone 
knows that." (quote from Ron in Book 1). I was always told that 
'warlock' originated as a Saxon word meaning 'oath breaker', which 
many people would say refers to campaign promises.