Word of the Day : November 30, 2021
Hoity – toity
adjective hoy-tee-TOY-tee
What it Means
Hoity-toity means “pretentious, fancy, or pompous.”
// The guidance counselor emphasized that students do not need to go to a hoity-toity college to achieve success.
Examples
“[Daniel Heider] says his post-high-school years were difficult. … ‘I felt like I was at a disadvantage because everybody in DC is interning with a great congressman or is going to law school or is going to med school, and everybody’s super hoity-toity and super important….'” — The Washingtonian, April 2021
Did You Know?
Hoity-toity is believed to have been created as a rhyme based on the dialectal English word hoit, meaning “to play the fool.” Hoity-toity can mean “foolish” (e.g., “… as though it were very hoity-toity of me not to know that royal personage.” — W. Somerset Maugham, The Razor’s Edge), but it is most often used to mean “pretentious.”
Aquinas College Library 