stuffed shirt

See also: stuffed-shirt

English

WOTD – 6 November 2010

Alternative forms

• stuffed-shirt

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU):

  (file)

Noun

stuffed shirt (plural stuffed shirts)

1. (idiomatic) One who is pompous or self-important, especially one who is officious in a position of authority.
   • 1914, Samuel Hopkins Adams, The Clarion, ch. 30:

     "Don't you come the high-and-holy on me. You and your smooth, big, phony stuffed-shirt of a father."

   • 1952, "Medicine: Mind Matters," Time, 26 May:

     Dr. Laughlin was the only one in a movie party who detested the second male lead—"I regarded him as overserious, pedantic, a stuffed shirt."

2. (usually hyphenated) Used attributively.
   • 2000, Frederik Balfour, "Return of a Hong Kong Highflier ," BusinessWeek, 10 July:

     The opportunistic style that was the bank's trademark still prevails and continues to attract talented young Hong Kongers looking for an alternative to the stuffed-shirt culture of most U.S. and European banks.

Translations

one who is overly-officious

• Finnish: tärkeilijä, mahtailija (fi)
• French: officieux (fr), indispensable (fr), empaillé (fr), huile lourde (fr), huile (fr), singe (fr)
• German: Wichtigtuer (de) m, Wichtigmacher m
• Italian: pallone gonfiato m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Polish: formalista (pl) m, nadęty facet m, sztywniak m
• Russian: напыщенное ничто́жество (napyščennoje ničtóžestvo)
• Spanish: persona estirada

References

• “stuffed shirt”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.