pumpking

The story

Blend of pumpkin + king, anecdotally from the use of a stuffed pumpkin toy that was handed between employees as a token of permission to make changes, ensuring that only one person could make changes at any particular time.

First known use, by meaning

• from late 20th c. A Perl user working on shared source code who has been temporarily designated as the only person who is allowed to make changes.