overweening
adjective

- being too proud or confident in yourself

- if you want to emphasize your disapproval of someone's great ambition or pride, you can refer to their overweening ambition or pride

Cambridge Dictionary / Collins Dictionary

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WORD ORIGIN

The word "overweening" comes from the Middle English word overwening, which is a combination of over (excessive) and wenen (to think or suppose). In essence, to think too highly of oneself, to have excessive pride or arrogance.

The term has evolved over time and is now used to describe someone who is excessively confident, arrogant, or presumptuous. It carries a negative connotation of someone who is overly self-assured to the point of being obnoxious or insufferable.

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OVERWEENING JACKSON

During an interview one day, Samuel L. Jackson confessed that he liked to relax in front of the TV and watch a good movie — especially if he was in it.

"There's rarely a day that there's not some of my stuff on there," he enthused, "I can punch my name into TiVo and watch myself all the time. I really enjoy it!"

Born December 21, 1948, Jackson is one of the most widely recognised actors of his generation, the films in which he has appeared have collectively grossed over $27 billion worldwide, making him the highest-grossing actor of all time.

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SYNONYMS

arrogant, blustering, boastful, cavalier, cocky, conceited, condescending, disdainful, dictatorial, domineering, egotistical, forward, haughty, high and mighty, high-handed, hubristic, imperious, insolent, lordly, lofty, magisterial, officious, opinionated, overbearing, overconfident, OVERWEENING, peremptory, pompous, presumptuous, self-aggrandizing (-assertive, -important), smug, supercilious, throwing one's weight about, throwing one's weight around, uppish, vain, vainglorious

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SMUGGLE OWAD into an English conversation, say something like:

“Instead of the common adjective 'arrogant' I sometimes prefer the lesser known synonym OVERWEENING, which has a subtly different feeling.”

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