highfalutin means self-important, pompous; arrogant or egotistical. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 76 out of 100.
Why this word is great
HIGHFALUTIN — [Adjective] Pompous or pretentious, especially in language or style. Likely an American English alteration of 'high-fluting' or related to 'high-flying' or 'high-flown', first recorded circa 1839, a wry coinage from a frontier ethos suspicious of airs. Unlike 'grandiloquent', which denotes a formal, Ciceronian bombast, or 'ostentatious', which parades showy wealth, highfalutin homes in on a folksy, inflated self-importance—the pretension that invites a dismissive smirk. It is the tinny ring of a ten-cent word used where a penny one would do, the amateur critic describing a barn painting as 'a bucolic deconstruction of agrarian semiotics,' or the ornate, gilt-edged invitation to a dreadfully ordinary potluck—a performance of elevation whose most profound truth is its own transparent longing.
adj
- Self-important, pompous; arrogant or egotistical.“It's only a matter of time before some highfalutin developer builds a huge hotel and ruins the scenery.”
noun
- Pompous speech or writing.“Don't write so much highfalutin next time.”