officiousness

As happened during Prohibition, increasing swaths of the nation are ignoring officiousness that is not plausibly related to a proportionate public good, and that is clearly related to social bossiness.

There’s an officiousness—an almost disingenuous toadying—to these interactions that I, with my modern, fashionable prejudices, find a bit funny and gross.

That said, the dopey qualities in Waititi’s portrayal of Hitler — along with the narrow-minded officiousness of the movie’s Nazis — also serves to demystify evil a bit.

It was often, says Ron, very hard not to burst out laughing at the credulity and the petty officiousness of the Klan members.

Her mother, when Aunty Uju came back, stayed in Dolphin Estate for a while, bathing and feeding the gurgling, smooth-skinned baby, but she faced The General with a cold officiousness.