Definition:
: an unstatesmanlike practitioner of politics : a petty or contemptible politician
About the Word:
The suffix -aster is a very useful one, and would appear to be underutilized in our language. It comes from Latin, in which language it means 'having a partial resemblance'; in English use it is added to words to describe a person who is in some way 'inferior, worthless, or not genuine.' In addition to politicaster, we find this suffix use to refer to inferior poets (poetaster), doctors (medicaster), and philosophers (philosophaster), all of whom are often worthy of this label.
Example:
"You can neither have read, nor observed enough to be a politician. Pretend not then to scrutinize the arts of government, for fear you should be called a politicaster." — Philip Stanhope Dodge, Hints to Fresh-man, from a Member of the University of Cambridge, 1796.
