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pencil pusher. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
pencil pusher, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
pencil pusher in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Etymology
US origin, 1881.[1][2]
Noun
pencil pusher (plural pencil pushers)
- (informal, often derogatory) One who does routine office work; someone involved mainly in paperwork.
- Synonyms: office worker, bureaucrat, desk jockey, paper-pusher, pen-pusher
2012, Danielle Steel, The Sins of the Mother, Random House, →ISBN, page 285:“ […] I don't have her creative genius or her version. I'm a numbers man, like my father. A pencil pusher, as Amanda said.” With no balls, he added silently.
2013, Karin Slaughter, Busted, Random House, →ISBN:The internal investigator for the Macon Police Department had the dour, lifeless personality of a career pencil pusher.
Translations
one who does office work
- Bulgarian: писар (bg) m (pisar)
- Catalan: pixatinters (ca) m (literally “ink pisser”)
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 管帳員／管帐员 (guǎnzhàngyuán)
- Czech: kancelářská krysa (cs) f (literally “office rat”)
- Danish: ni-til-femmer c, papirnusser (da) c
- Estonian: paberimäärija
- Finnish: kynänpyörittäjä (literally “pencil circler”), konttorirotta (fi)
- French: gratte-papier (fr) m (literally “paper scratcher”)
- German: Bleistiftstemmer (literally “weightlifter with pencils”), Sesselfurzer (de) (literally “chair farter”), Bürohengst (de) m (literally “office stallion”)
- Hindi: please add this translation if you can
- Japanese: サラリーマン (ja) (literally “salary man”)
- Norwegian: kontorrotte m or f (literally “office rat”)
- Polish: gryzipiórek (pl) m (literally “pen chomper”), biurokrata (pl) f, zarękawek (pl) m, urzędas (pl) m
- Romanian: conțopist (ro) m, scriptolog (ro) m
- Russian: канцеля́рская кры́са (ru) f (kanceljárskaja krýsa, literally “office rat”), черни́льная душа́ (ru) f (černílʹnaja dušá, literally “ink soul”)
- Slovak: kancelárska krysa f (literally “office rat”)
- Spanish: chupatintas (es) m (literally “ink sucker”), cagatintas (es) m (literally “ink shitter”), tinterillo (es) m, plumífero (es) m
- Swedish: kontorsråtta (sv) c (literally “office rat”)
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See also
References
- ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “pencil”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
- ^ Eric Partridge (2005) “pencil-pusher”, in Tom Dalzell and Terry Victor, editors, The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, volume 2 (J–Z), London, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 1462.