outrecuidance means presumption, arrogance, self-conceit. Lexicurio rates it Distinctive — a strength score of 67 out of 100.
Why this word is great
OUTRECUIDANCE — [Noun] Excessive self-conceit or presumption; an unwarranted overestimation of one's own importance. From Old French outrecuidance, from outre ("beyond, excessive") + cuidier ("to think"), from Latin cogitare ("to think"). Unlike hubris, which carries the scent of tragic, divine retribution, or confidence, which implies a grounded and justified self-assurance, outrecuidance is the blithe, unpunished arrogance of the petty tyrant. It is the smirk of a junior executive issuing impossible decrees, the grating laughter of a man explaining your own field to you, and the serene conviction of a pedestrian stepping into traffic, expecting the world to brake. This is the self that declares the world its fiefdom—a quiet tyranny built not to achievement, but to the weightless audacity of thought untethered from fact.
noun
- Presumption, arrogance, self-conceit.““It is full time,” said De Bracy, “that the outrecuidance of these peasants should be restrained by some striking example.””