haughty

English

Etymology

From earlier hauty, haultic, with spelling change in imitation of naughty and high, from Middle English hautein, hautain (with -ein, -ain becoming -y through the form hautenesse standing for *hauteinnesse; see haughtiness), from haute (“self-important”), from Old French haut, hault (“high, lofty”), from Frankish *hauh, hōh (“high, lofty, proud”) and Latin altus (“high, deep”). More at high, old.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɔːti
• (cot–caught merger) Homophone: hottie

Adjective

haughty (comparative haughtier, superlative haughtiest)

1. Conveying in demeanour the assumption of superiority; disdainful, supercilious.

Synonyms

• See also Wikisaurus:arrogant

Translations

disdainful, supercilious; in demeanour conveying the assumption of superiority

Arabic: متعالي - متكبر - متغطرس Catalan: superb (ca), orgullós (ca), arrogant (ca) Czech: pyšný (cs) m., povýšený (cs) m. Dutch: hooghartig (nl), hoogmoedig (nl) Finnish: mahtaileva (fi), ylimielinen (fi), koppava (fi) French: hautain (fr) German: hochmütig (de), stolz (de) Greek: υπεροπτικός (el) (yperoptikós) Hungarian: dölyfös (hu) Italian: superbo (it), orgoglioso (it)

Japanese: 高慢な (こうまんな, koumanna), 傲慢な (ごうまんな, goumanna), 横柄な (おうへいな, ōheina) 尊大な (そんだいな, sondaina) Latin: superbus (la) m. Portuguese: soberbo, vanglorioso, imodesto Romanian: mândru (ro) Russian: высокомерный (ru), презрительный (ru) Scottish Gaelic: àrdanach (gd) Spanish: soberbio (es) Swedish: högfärdig

Usage notes

Possibly due to the similar sounding (and utterly different in meaning) hottie, haughty has become rare in North America at least.

References

• “haughty” in the Online Etymology Dictionary, Douglas Harper, 2001