airs and graces

English

WOTD – 17 November 2022

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌɛəz‿n̩ ˈɡɹeɪsɪz/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌɛɚz‿n̩ ˈɡɹeɪsɪz/
• Rhymes: -eɪsɪz
• Hyphenation: airs and gra‧ces

Noun

airs and graces pl (plural only)

1. (derogatory) Behaviour adopted to demonstrate (originally) one's good upbringing; or (now) one's superiority; pretentious or snobbish behaviour.

   Synonyms: affectations, (archaic) hoity-toity, huffiness, pretensions

   • 1697, [John Vanbrugh], “[Part I]”, in Æsop. A Comedy. […], 3rd edition, London: […] Richard Wellington, […], published 1702, →OCLC, Act II, page 18:

     He made a thouſand uggly Faces, / VVhich (as ſometimes in Ladies caſes) / VVere all deſign'd for Airs and Graces.

   • 1711 July 3 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison], “FRIDAY, June 22, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 98; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume II, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC, page 43:

     Nature has laid out all her airt in beautifying the face; […] giving it airs and graces that cannot be described, and surrounded it with such a flowing shade of hair as sets all its beauties in the most agreeable light.

     The spelling has been modernized.

   • 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, “A Cynical Chapter”, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC, page 357:

     Indeed, she rehearsed that exalted part in life with great satisfaction to herself, and to the amusement of old Sir Pitt, who chuckled at her airs and graces, and would laugh by the hour together at her assumptions of dignity and imitations of genteel life.

   • 2023 January 11, Stephen Roberts, “Bradshaw's Britain: castles and cathedrals”, in RAIL, number 974, page 56:

     The station (1840) was originally Cheltenham but the more grandiose Cheltenham Spa since 1925, which feels a bit pretentious as the town has never allowed itself to assume such airs and graces.

Related terms

• give oneself airs
• put on airs

Translations

behaviour adopted (originally) to demonstrate one’s good upbringing; or (now) one’s superiority

• Finnish: hienostelu (fi), pöyhkeily (fi)
• German: Starallüren (de) f pl (of a celebrity)
• Maori: whakaparanga

See also

• stand on ceremony

Further reading

• “airs and graces” under “air, n.¹”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, September 2022.
• “airs and graces, phrase”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.