overweening

English

Alternative forms

• over-weening

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /əʊvəˈwiːnɪŋ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /oʊvɚˈwinɪŋ/
• Rhymes: -iːnɪŋ

Etymology 1

From Middle English overweninge, equivalent to overween +‎ -ing. Cognate with obsolete Dutch overwanig, overwaand (“presumptuous; cocky; conceited”).

Adjective

overweening (comparative more overweening, superlative most overweening)

1. Unduly confident; arrogant

   She wins one modeling contest in Montana and suddenly she’s overweening.

   Synonyms: presumptuous, conceited

   • 1623, William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 5:

     Here's an overweening rogue!

   • 1870, Carl Schurz, George H. Thomas Eulogy

     No success rendered him overweening and no disaster was ever known to stagger his firmness.

   • 1908, Frederic Bancroft and William A. Dunning, A Sketch of Carl Schurz’s Political Career

     The Senate was displaying an overweening hauteur as if it were the government.

2. Exaggerated, excessive.
   • 2015 January 4, Jonathan Rauch, “How to Make Men Free”, in NY Times‎^[1], retrieved 21050215:

     The idea that an overweening federal government is a threat to both freedom and equality (not to mention prosperity) goes back to Jefferson, James Madison, Patrick Henry and some other fairly respectable personages.

Derived terms

• overweeningly
• overweeningness

 

Translations

over-confident

• Bulgarian: самонадеян (bg) (samonadejan), високомерен (bg) (visokomeren)
• Dutch: zelfverzekerd (nl), arrogant (nl)
• French: confiant (fr), arrogant (fr)
• German: überheblich (de), eingebildet (de), anmaßend (de), arrogant (de)
• Greek:

  Ancient: ὑπέρβιος (hupérbios)

• Irish: ainteann, anuallach, ládasach, leitheadach, mórchúiseach, mórtasach, sotalach

• Occitan: arrogant
• Russian: самонаде́янный (ru) m (samonadéjannyj)
• Spanish: prepotente (es)

Etymology 2

From Middle English overweninge, equivalent to overween +‎ -ing.

Noun

overweening (countable and uncountable, plural overweenings)

1. (now rare) An excessively high opinion of oneself or one’s abilities; presumption, arrogance.
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821, page 258:

     Let us suppresse this over-weening [transl. cuider], the first foundation of the tyrannie of the wicked spirit […].

Etymology 3

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

overweening

1. present participle of overween