uppity

Uppity means “haughty” and “snobbish”—an adjective for someone who puts on airs, someone who is self-important. But, this descriptor has a very racist past, used particularly to disparage Black people as “not remembering their place as inferior.”

Given this explicitly racist past, it is a good idea to cut down on using uppity. Read our next section for some wise alternatives.

If knowing the history of uppity has got you reflecting on your word choices, this slideshow, “These Common Words Have Offensive Histories,” discusses many other words whose place in your vocab you may want to reconsider. 

There are plenty of alternatives to the problematic uppity. Besides haughty, snobbish, self-important, and putting on airs as noted above, such words as arrogant, snooty, pompous, smug, vain, and high and mighty can convey being overproud like uppity.

You can find even more synonyms at Thesaurus.com. We suggest you start with the adjective proud.