Word of the Day

: May 8, 2010

hoity-toity

adjective hoy-tee-TOY-tee

What It Means

hoity-toity in Context

"I’m a simple man with down-home values," said Ray. "You won’t catch me hanging out with the hoity-toity crowd at trendy art galleries or chichi nightclubs."

Did You Know?

Today we most often use "hoity-toity" as an adjective, but before it was an adjective it was a noun meaning "thoughtless giddy behavior." The noun, which first appeared in print in 1668, was probably created as a singsongy rhyme based on the dialectal English word "hoit," meaning "to play the fool." The adjective "hoity-toity" can stay close to its roots and mean "foolish" (". . . as though it were very hoity-toity of me not to know that royal personage." -- W. Somerset Maugham, The Razor’s Edge), but in current use it more often means "pretentious."