Meaning

noun any elderly pompous reactionary ultranationalistic person (after the cartoon character created by Sir David Low)

noun a small nonrigid airship used for observation or as a barrage balloon

originOrigin not entirely certain. However, most historians believe that it is onomatopoeia for the sound a blimp makes when thumped. Although there is some disagreement among historians, credit for coining the term is usually given to Lt. A. D. Cunningham of the British Royal Navy in 1915. There is an often repeated, but false, alternative explanation for the term. The erroneous story is that at some…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0