He had used the word in its Pickwickian sense … he had merely considered him a humbug in a Pickwickian point of view.

Pickwick Papers (1836), Chapter I. The quarrel in the Pickwick Club is a literal paraphrase of a scene in the House of Commons during a debate, April 17, 1823, when Brougham and Canning quarreled over an accusation which was decided should be taken as political, not personal.