officialdom

noun

Etymology: Etymology tree English official Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- Proto-Indo-European *-mos Proto-Indo-European *dʰóh₁mos Proto-Germanic *dōmaz Proto-Germanic *-dōmaz Proto-West Germanic *-dōm Old English -dōm Middle English -dom English -dom English officialdom From official + -dom.

1. The people elected to government or employed in the civil service.

   “[Magazine staffer:] In the bag may be the next chief—a wedding to one of officialdom's family will assure certainty.”

   “Nevertheless Armenian leaders at first retained faith in the reform agenda of the Porte, ascribing their ills to incompetent officialdom and Kurdish lawlessness.”

2. The state of being official

   “This was largely due to its widespread use in the army and officialdom in the Ottoman Empire.”