hubris

See also: húbris

English

WOTD – 30 July 2006

A 1549 engraving by Hans Sebald Beham titled Das Unmögliche or Impossibile, meaning "The Impossible." The caption, translated from German, reads "No one should set themselves great tasks which are impossible for them to do." The image serves as a didactic allegory warning against hubris or overreaching ambition.

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek ὕβρις (húbris, “insolence, sexual outrage”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈhjuːbɹɪs/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈhjubɹɪs/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: bris

Noun

hubris (countable and uncountable, plural hubrises)

1. Excessive arrogance or pride, or presumption, originally (Greek mythology) toward the gods.
   • 1997, John M. Connor, “The Global Lysine Price-Fixing Conspiracy of 1992-1995”, in Review of Agricultural Economics, volume 19, number 2, page 426:

     Antitrust prosecutors target big companies that exude hubris.

   • 2017 August 20, “The Observer view on Donald Trump’s presidency”, in The Observer‎^[1]:

     One would have thought that even Trump, despite all his hubris and egotism, would know better than to jump feet first into America’s most sensitive issue: racial division.

Alternative forms

• hybris

Derived terms

• hubristic
• hubristical
• hubristically
• unhubristic

Translations

excessive arrogance, presumption, or pride

• Albanian: kryelartësi (sq) f
• Arabic: غَطْرَسَة f (ḡaṭrasa)
• Bulgarian: високомерие (bg) n (visokomerie), арогантност (bg) f (arogantnost)
• Catalan: arrogància (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 傲慢 (zh) (àomàn), 狂妄 (zh) (kuángwàng), 自恃 (zh) (zìshì)

• Czech: namyšlenost (cs) f, arogance f
• Danish: hybris (da), overmod
• Dutch: hybris (nl), hoogmoed (nl), kapsones (nl) m
• Esperanto: orgojlo
• Finnish: hybris (fi), ylimielisyys (fi), uho (fi)
• French: hybris (fr), hubris (fr)
• Galician: fachenda (gl) f, arrogancia (gl) f
• Georgian: მედიდურობა (mediduroba), სიამაყე (siamaq̇e)
• German: Überheblichkeit (de) f, Hochmut (de) m, Hybris (de) f, Dünkel (de) m, Selbstüberschätzung (de) f
• Gothic: 𐌷𐌰𐌿𐌷𐌷𐌰𐌹𐍂𐍄𐌴𐌹 f (hauhhairtei)
• Hungarian: gőg (hu), hübrisz (hu), önhittség (hu)
• Icelandic: hroki (is) m, ofdramb n
• Indonesian: keangkuhan (id)
• Italian: insolenza (it), arroganza (it), supponenza (it) f
• Japanese: 傲慢 (ja) (ごうまん, gōman), 不遜 (ja) (fuson)
• Korean: 거만 (ko) (geoman)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: quretî (ku) f, pozbilindî (ku) f

• Macedonian: на́дменост f (nádmenost), горде́ливост f (gordélivost)
• Polish: pycha (pl) f
• Portuguese: húbris (pt)
• Romanian: hybris (ro) n
• Russian: высокоме́рие (ru) (vysokomérije)
• Serbo-Croatian: arogancija (sh), oholost (sh), gordost (sh), visokomerje n
• Spanish: soberbia (es), desmesura (es) f, hibris f, hybris f, hubris f
• Swedish: hybris (sv)
• Ukrainian: зарозумілість f (zarozumilistʹ), гібрис m (hibrys)

See also

• hamartia
• pride comes before a fall
• sophrosyne

Further reading

• hubris on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “hubris”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• rubish

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈubɾis/ [ˈu.β̞ɾis]
• Rhymes: -ubɾis
• Syllabification: hu‧bris

Noun

hubris f (uncountable)

1. hubris