hifalutin
1
9.9
- adjective
- /ˌhaɪfəˈluːtɪn/
- Informal
:
pretencioso
- They threw a hifalutin party full of celebrity guests and gourmet food.
Examples
-
I prefer simple language to all that hifalutin jargon.
-
He always talks in that hifalutin way, as if he's better than everyone else.
-
His speech was so hifalutin that no one could understand it.
-
I find her hifalutin style quite off-putting.
-
The author's hifalutin language made the novel hard to read.
-
She avoided hifalutin phrases, preferring to speak simply and clearly.
-
His hifalutin behavior at the party made everyone else feel out of place.
Synonyms
260
4.5
Behaving as if you are more important or better than other people
74
7.3
Trying to seem more important or clever than you really are
57
5.8
Acting more important and formal than necessary
27
7.5
Too big and showy in a way that tries to seem more important than it is
20
8.2
Acting as if you are better than other people
20
5.8
Showing elegant, expensive style that makes someone seem richer or more important
14
8.1
Acting proud and looking down on other people
11
7.7
To show off very expensive things to attract attention
5
9.9
Someone who acts proud and shows they feel better than others
5
9.5
Being too proud and acting as if you are better than other people
4
9.3
Behaving or speaking in a fancy way to seem more important
1
8.7
Very fancy in a way that tries to impress people
1
8.2
Seeming important or impressive but lacking real meaning and honesty
1
9.3
Showing the attitude of a rich person who thinks they are better than others
1
8.9
Using words or ideas that sound grand and showy but feel unrealistic
1
9.9
Using long, fancy words to sound important
1
9.6
Looking expensive or stylish in a showy, joking way
Showing off and acting more important than others
Acting very formal and proud to seem better than others
Acting very fancy to show you are better than others
Acting like you are better than other people
Having a proud, snobbish manner and showing off fashionable tastes
Acting like a rich person to seem important
To use very big, showy words to sound important
Someone who shows educated, serious tastes in art or books and seems a bit proud
Antonyms
How Pompous
Surface Forms
Morphology
hifalutin = highfalutin (semi-transparent) = high + falutin
The element 'high' suggests 'lofty' which cues the sense, but the second element 'falutin' is not a productive English morpheme and the full sense 'pretentious' is not fully derivable.
Etymology
Hifalutin comes from a playful American phrase high-falutin, made of high ('fancy' or 'important') and a showy-sounding 'falutin' that you can remember like flaunt ('to show off'). So, hifalutin describes speech or behaviour that is overly fancy and meant to impress.