Word of the Day

: April 21, 2011

haughty

adjective HAW-tee

What It Means

: blatantly and disdainfully proud

haughty in Context

"Do you know who I am?" asked the woman with a tone of haughtydisdain.

"Diana Ross was the first modern pop diva, a benchmark of haughty elegance that laid the path for Whitney, Mariah and Christina. Her front-and-center attitude could be trying; she constantly overshadowed fellow Supremes Flo Ballard and Mary Wilson and demanded top billing in the trio's final years." -- From a review by Christian Schaeffer in the Dallas Observer (Texas), February 24, 2011

Did You Know?

"Haughty," "proud," "arrogant," "insolent," "overbearing," "supercilious," and "disdainful" all mean showing scorn for inferiors. "Haughty" (which derives via Anglo-French "haut" or "halt" from Latin "altus," meaning "high") suggests a consciousness of superior birth or position. "Proud" may suggest an assumed superiority or loftiness ("too proud to take charity"). "Arrogant" implies a claiming for oneself of more consideration or importance than is warranted ("an arrogant executive"). "Insolent" implies contemptuousness ("We were ignored by an insolent waiter"). "Overbearing" suggests a tyrannical manner ("an overbearing supervisor"). "Supercilious" implies a cool, patronizing attitude ("an aloof and supercilious manner"). "Disdainful" suggests a more active and openly scornful superciliousness ("disdainful of their social inferiors").