Someone who thinks he's very important, but isn't

Question

I cannot find a good equivalent of the Russian "Watchman's syndrome" in English. It refers to someone who thinks he's very important, but isn't.

For example, this guy has "Watchman's syndrome":

This expression is often used in Russian IT.

Answer 1

There is no word-for-word translation, and no single word that aptly encompasses the idea, color, and register of the Russian original. Rather, you have to step a bit back and translate your sentence as a whole.

The English equivalent to "у него синдром вахтера" is

That's the tiniest/smallest amount of power I have ever seen go to anyone's head.

This closely matches the Russian idiom in every respect, and is a perfectly idiomatic retort in the situation that you've quoted.

Answer 2

I am not aware of any English idiom that closely matches the Russian one you mention. Somewhat similar is the idiomatic set phrase paper tiger, which Merriam-Webster's Eleventh Collegiate Dictionary (2003) defines as follows:

paper tiger n (1850) : one that is outwardly powerful or dangerous but inwardly weak or ineffectual

On the topic of inflated self-regard, Wolfgang Mieder, A Dictionary of American Proverbs (1992) points to several English proverbs that seem on point:

Conceit is nature's gift to small men to make up for that which they don't have.

Conceit is God's gift to little men.

Every man has a right to be conceited until he is successful.

There is also an Aesop's fable that delivers a related moral. From "The Gnat and the Bull," in The Aesop for Children:

A Gnat flew over the meadow with much buzzing for so small a creature and settled on the tip of one of the horns of a Bull. After he had rested a short time, he made ready to fly away. But before he left he begged the Bull's pardon for having used his horn for a resting place.

"You must be very glad to have me go now," he said.

"It's all the same to me," replied the Bull. I did not even know you were there."

[Moral:] We are often of greater importance in our own eyes than in the eyes of our neighbor.

[Alternative moral:] The smaller the mind the greater the conceit.

Answer 3

The nearest I can think of is delusions of grandeur:

the belief that you are more important or powerful than you really are

This is used as a term in psychology but also informally for someone who is a bit above themselves. The dictionary page gives a few synonyms that might be relevant (eg officious, smart-alec, tin god, throw your weight. around ...)

Close, also, is jobsworth:

someone who always obeys all the rules of their job even when they cause problems for other people or when the rules are silly

This one is, I think, British English (only?)

Answer 4

Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) is a personality disorder with a long-term pattern of abnormal behavior characterized by exaggerated feelings of self-importance, an excessive need for admiration, and a lack of empathy