Not really a Paper Shuffler but I am looking for a word that describes a person who knows all the unnecessary details in a business or activity but doesn't really understand the whole idea or the real essence of what is really going on. It's the type of person who knows so much buzzwords, spends so much time in irrelevant meetings and workshops where people alike are exchanging more or less mediocre ideas that don't add any extra value to his business or activity.
1 Answer
I'd be surprised if Ancient Greek had developed pedantic bureaucracies supporting this type of narrow vision dismissed by the term. The German is probably Papiermischer. I gather paper-pusher and pencil-pusher are not unrelated. The idea is to imply they have no worldly experience and judgement.
In any case, in modern Greek, the closest you'd get is χαρτογιακάς, with pretty much the same dismissive flavor. (It sounds odd, as, literally, it means "paper collar", but, no, the emphasis is not on the formal dress of yore, but on the mainstream remove of the person so characterized.)
(A friend pointed out to me that perhaps the best term might well be the mediaeval chartularius/χαρτουλάριος, from the deeply bureaucratic Byzantine empire, notorious for out-of-touch officialdom.)
