haughtiness

American  

[haw-tee-nis] / ˈhɔ ti nɪs /

noun

1. scornful pride, snobbishness, or arrogance.

   I was accused of having an air of superiority, of haughtiness, of indifference or condescension to others.

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Other Word Forms

• overhaughtiness
  noun

Etymology

Origin of haughtiness

haughty ( def. ) + -ness ( def. )

Explanation

If you are shy and have a hard time talking to others, people might wrongly interpret your quietness as haughtiness. Haughtiness is thinking a lot of yourself and not much of others. The word haughtiness originally comes from the Old French adjective haut meaning "high" and later developed to mean having a high estimation of yourself. When you think of the word, imagine a Queen riding by on a horse, chin upturned, not paying any mind to her subjects below. Her Highness might as well be called Her Haughtiness up there.

Example Sentences

Haughtiness is an attitude and characteristic she’s cultivated in pictures such as “Working Girl” and “The Ice Storm,” and there certainly are elements of it in her breakout role, Ellen Ripley of the “Alien” movies.

From Seattle Times • Apr. 5, 2017

Haughtiness such as his, though it could never have been liked, might, if it had been united with elevated sentiments of virtue and honour, have been pardoned.

From The History of England, from the Accession of James II — Volume 5 by Macaulay, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Baron

Haughtiness, and but too often ill-temper, threw a shade over a countenance, which when happy and animated was not only attractive then, but gave a fair promise of great beauty in after years.

From Home Influence A Tale for Mothers and Daughters by Aguilar, Grace

He is very reserved, and a Person of few Words, which gives him an Air that those who are not conversant with him mistake for Haughtiness.

From The Memoirs of Charles-Lewis, Baron de Pollnitz, Volume I Being the Observations He Made in His Late Travels from Prussia thro' Germany, Italy, France, Flanders, Holland, England, &C. in Letters to His Friend. Discovering Not Only the Present State of the Chief Cities and Towns; but the Characters of the Principal Persons at the Several Courts. by P?llnitz, Karl Ludwig von

I shall bring this Haughtiness to a Penance, you may not like.

From The Old Debauchees. A Comedy (1732) by Fielding, Henry