haughty
Formshaughtier, haughtiest
- 1Showing by one's manner an assumption of being superior to others, and treating them with disdain.
The duchess answered their questions with a haughty silence.
He grew haughtier with every promotion, barely nodding to his old friends in the hallway.
Similararrogant, disdainful, conceited, imperious, cocky
Oppositehumble, modest, unassuming
Note
Its gh is a later arrival: the older spelling was hauty, from Middle English hautein, and the letters crept in by imitation of naughty and high. The echo of high suits a manner of looking down on others. The word can be lent to things as well as people, as when Michael Arlen's Piracy (1922) has a haughty stretch of Tarmac turn meek and shrunken beside a grander drive.
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Origin
From earlier hauty, from Middle English hautein, hautain and haute, "self-important", from Old French haut, hault, "high, lofty", from Frankish *hauh, *hōh, "high, lofty, proud", and Latin altus, "high, deep". The spelling changed in imitation of English naughty and high.