supercilious
adjective

- behaving or looking as though one thinks one is superior to others

Oxford Dictionary

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WORD ORIGIN

Arrogant and superior people tend to raise an eyebrow at anything they consider beneath themselves. Ancient Romans must have shown the raised-eyebrow look often, because the adjective "supercilious" derives from superciliosus which derives from supercilium meaning "eyebrow”.

Supercilious has been used in English to describe arrogance since the late 1500s.

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SUPERCILIOUS CAMBYSES

Cyrus II once reprimanded his son, Cambyses II, for his arrogant and insolent behavior, observing that he himself would never have spoken to his own father in the way that Cambyses had spoken to him.

“But you were the son of a nobody”, Cambyses replied, “whereas I am the son of Cyrus the Great!”

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SYNONYMS

Judging by the hundreds of synonyms for supercilious (below is just a selection), English speakers seem to have a very low opinion of superciliousness.

- having an especially high opinion of oneself, usually with contempt for others

above oneself, aloof, arrogant, barefaced, belittling, big-headed, biggety, blowing one’s own horn (trumpet), boldfaced, boorish, bounderish, brass-necked, brassbound, brazen-faced, bull-headed, cocksure, cocky, condescending, contemptuous, demeaning, denigrating, disdainful, disparaging, egocentric, egoistic, elitist, fancy-pants, flighty, full of contempt (hot air, oneself, yourself), grandiloquent, grandiose, haughty, have an excessively high opinion of oneself, heading for a fall, high-and-mighty, high-flown, hoity-toity, holier-than-thou, huffish, humiliating, “I’m all right, Jack”, ill-bred, ill-mannered, imperious, impertinent, inconsiderate, inflated, in love with oneself, insolent, insufferable, insulting, jumped up, know-it-all, la-dee-da, like a cat that has swallowed the canary (got the cream), lofty, looking down your nose at, lording it, nose in the air, not backwards in coming forwards, on a high horse, on an ego trip, overbearing, overproud, overripe, overstated, overweening, partisan, patronizing, pleased with oneself (yourself), pompous, poncey, pontificating, pretentious, priggish, proud of oneself (yourself), puffed-up, putting on airs, riding for a fall, scoffing, scornful, self-absorbed, self-admiring, self-adulatory, self-affected, self-aggrandizing, self-applauding, self-approving, self-congratulatory, self-glorifying, self-gratulatory, self-important, self-loving, self-obsessed, self-opinionated, self-pleased, self-satisfied, smart-alecky, smart-arsed (UK), smart-assed (US), smart aleck, smarty pants, smug, sniffy, snobbish, snobby, snooty, snot-nosed, snotty, stiff-necked, stuck-up, SUPERCILIOUS, swaggering, swollen-headed, think a lot of oneself, think one is God’s gift, think one is the cat’s pyjamas (whiskers), think too highly of oneself, throwing one’s weight about, toffee-nosed, too big for your boots, toplofty, uppish, uppity, vainglorious, well-pleased, wiseguy, wisenheimer

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SMUGGLE OWAD into an English conversation, say something like:

"The food was good, but the waiter was SUPERCILIOUS,... we definitely won't eat in that restaurant again."

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