Uppity
adjective

- self-important; arrogant

- an uppity person behaves in an unpleasant way because they think that they are more important than they really are

The Oxford Dictionary / The Cambridge Dictionary

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WORD ORIGIN

This American-English term from around 1880 is now also common in the UK. It was “originally used by black people to describe other black people who were felt to behave too self-assertively – the first recorded use is in ‘Uncle Remus’.

Uncle Remus is the fictional title character and narrator of a collection of African American folktales compiled and adapted by Joel Chandler Harris and first published in book form in 1881.

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THREE EXAMPLES OF UPPITYNESS

(1) Duran Duran’s Simon Le Bon was often accused of being a snob. “I’m not a snob,” he once declared. “Ask anybody. Well, anybody who matters.”

(2) While flying first class, Jennifer Lopez apparently doesn’t talk to just anyone. A United Airlines attendant said he offered her a drink on a flight, but J.Lo turned her head away and told her personal assistant to say to the flight attendant, “Please tell him I’d like a Diet Coke and lime.”

(3) James Whistler once found himself at a party engaged in conversation with a Boston snob: “And where were you born, Mr. Whistler?” she asked. “Lowell, Massachusetts”, he replied. “Whatever possessed you to be born in a place like that!” the woman exclaimed. “The explanation is quite simple”, Whistler drily replied, “I wished to be near my mother”.

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SYNONYMS

- smugly superior or dismissive of perceived inferiors:

above oneself, aloof, arty-farty, big-headed, big-mouthed, bigheaded, blowhard, blowing one’s own horn (trumpet), cock-a-hoop, cocksure, cocky, condescending, fancy-pants, full of airs and graces, full of hot air, full of oneself, gone Hollywood, heading for a fall, high-and-mighty, hoity-toity, holier-than-thou, jumped up, know-it-all, like the cat that’s got the cream, nose in the air, on a high horse, peacockish, puffed-up, putting on airs, self-glorifying, self-gratulatory, self-infatuated, smart-alecky, smarty, smarty pants, snooty, snot-nosed, stuck-up, think one is God’s gift, toffee-nosed, too big for your boots, toplofty, uppish, UPPITY, windbag, wiseguy, wisenheimer

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SMUGGLE OWAD into an English conversation, say something like:

“Unfortunately, Arthur has made himself rather unpopular with his UPPITY attitude.”

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