nabobery

English

Alternative forms

• nabobry, nabobbery

Etymology

nabob +‎ -ery

Noun

nabobery (usually uncountable, plural naboberies)

1. The behaviour of a nabob (generally disparaging).
   • 2001, Archie Baron, An Indian Affair, London: Channel 4 Books, Chapter 7, p. 169,^[1]

     Respecting Indian ways and mastering Indian politics, intrigues and all, may have been the key to his success and the Company’s survival in the subcontinent. But to many in Britain this reeked of Oriental despotism and ‘un-British’ nabobery.

2. A building frequented by nabobs or characteristic of a nabob.
   • 1841, William Lennox, chapter 3, in Compton Audley‎^[2], volume 3, London: Richard Bentley, page 69:

     Our hero’s regiment was shortly afterwards ordered to India, where he escaped all the horrors of that pestilential clime, and may, for what we know to the contrary, be seen daily, about three o’clock, enjoying a tiffin at the great nabobery in Hanover Square [i.e. the Oriental Club in London].

   • 1978, Jan Morris, chapter 27, in Farewell the Trumpets‎^[3], New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, published 1980, page 552:

     the gilded dome of Sezincote in the Cotswolds, that most enchanted of the naboberies

3. Very wealthy people collectively (generally disparaging).

   Synonyms: elite, upper crust

   • 1777, Maurice Morgann, An Essay on the Dramatic Character of Sir John Falstaff‎^[4], London: T. Davies, page 112:

     […] old Jack though deserted by princes, though censured by an ungrateful world, and persecuted from age to age by Critic and Commentator, and though never rich enough to hire one literary prostitute, shall find a Voluntary defender; and that too at a time when the whole body of the Nabobry demands and requires defence;

   • 1893, Moritz Moszkowski, “Music Lessons: A Chat”, in Music: A Monthly Magazine‎^[5], volume 4, Chicago, page 76:

     I refer to the talentless daughter of some rich man—the youthful feminine flower of Berlin Nabobry—who holds herself wonderfully gifted.

   • 1966, Stuart Nixon, Redwood Empire‎^[6], New York: Dutton, page 73:

     It was considered very chic in the 1870’s to own a vineyard and a private winery. Many of these survive, converted into châteaux by today’s successors to the nabobery.