Word
haughty
US/ˈhɔti/
UK/hˈɔːti/
Definition
adj. behaving in a way that shows you think you are much better or more important than other people. A haughty person might look down their nose at others or act very cold and proud.
adj. arrogantly superior and disdainful. Often describes a person's tone, expression, or manner when they believe others are socially or intellectually inferior.
Examples
“She gave him a haughty look and walked away.”
“The waiter's haughty attitude made the guests feel unwelcome, as if they were not sophisticated enough for the restaurant.”
“The aristocrat maintained a haughty silence throughout the trial, refusing to acknowledge the authority of a court he considered beneath his station.”
Examples
simple
“She gave him a haughty look and walked away.”
contextual
“The waiter's haughty attitude made the guests feel unwelcome, as if they were not sophisticated enough for the restaurant.”
complex
“The aristocrat maintained a haughty silence throughout the trial, refusing to acknowledge the authority of a court he considered beneath his station.”
Usage
Typically used to describe facial expressions, tones of voice, or general demeanour.
Real-World Examples
“Across from the Russells' marble mansion, the haughty Agnes van Rhijn (Christine Baranski) sits in her brownstone, upholding the standards of her class against the nouveau riche and their ilk.” “Bawden plays the downtrodden Edwardian flower girl, whom a haughty phonetics professor attempts to pass off as an upper class lady.” “Journalists would crowd around him as he approached his black sedan, bombarding him with inquiries about current events, to which he would respond with snappy remarks that solidified his image as the quintessential, haughty insider.” “Accessible vintage luxury,” is the goal, she said. “I want someone to be able to come in and take it home and not just wish for it.” “People gate-keep us,” Mr. Plotitsa said. “It’s their little secret. We’re priced fair, and they don’t want to share that. We’re not a Maxfield,” the haughty boutique on Melrose Avenue.” Etymology
From Frankish hauh and Latin altus, both meaning "high," the word entered Old French as haut or hault, carrying the sense of loftiness that easily slid into self-importance. Middle English borrowed this as haute, then hautein, with the spelling eventually shifting to haughty under the influence of naughty and high — a transformation assisted by the intermediate form hautenesse, which stood in for the expected hauteinnesse and nudged the ending toward -y.
The semantic drift is the story here: a word that began with physical elevation ended in moral altitude, the high ground becoming the high horse.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Synonyms
Scan code
englishreference.com/q/haughty