highfalutin

See also: high falutin

English

WOTD – 15 October 2008

Alternative forms

• hifalutin, hifalutin', hifalutin’, hifaluting
• highfalutin', highfalutin’, highfaluting
• high-falutin, high-falutin', high-falutin’, high-faluting
• high falutin, high falutin', high falutin’, high faluting

Etymology

Possible alteration of high-fluting. Another speculation connects the term with high-flighting/-flying.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌhaɪ.fəˈlu.tɨn/, /ˈhaɪ.fəˌlu.tɨn/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (AU):

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Adjective

highfalutin (comparative more highfalutin, superlative most highfalutin)

1. (informal) Self-important, pompous; arrogant or egotistical.

   Synonyms: bombast, hoity-toity, pretentious

   It's only a matter of time before some highfalutin developer builds a huge hotel and ruins the scenery.

   That one Cajun that moved to Austin is too highfalutin to come back to Livingston Parish. He's over there with that mean bread lady!

   His speech was very highfalutin.

Usage notes

Said of people and writing.

Translations

(informal) self-important, pompous; arrogant or egotistical

• Bulgarian: надут (bg) (nadut), превзет (bg) (prevzet)
• Dutch: hoogdravend (nl), arrogant (nl)
• Finnish: pöyhkeilevä
• German: arrogant (de), anmaßend (de), hochfahrend (de), hochtrabend (de), hochgestochen
• Hungarian: dagályos (hu), nagyhangú (hu)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Portuguese: metido (pt)
• Romanian: pompos (ro)
• Russian: напы́щенный (ru) m (napýščennyj)
• Spanish: pomposo (es) m, creído (es) m
• Swedish: högtravande (sv), pompös (sv)

Noun

highfalutin (uncountable)

1. (archaic) Pompous speech or writing.

Further reading

• “highfalutin”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “highfalutin”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.