hoity-toity

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 4, 2024 is: hoity-toity \hoy-tee-TOY-tee\ adjective Someone or something described as hoity-toity may also be called snooty or pretentious; hoity-toity people appear to think that they are better, smarter, or more important than other people, and hoity-toity places and things seem to be made for those same people. An informal word, hoity-toity is a synonym of [pompous](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pompous), [fancy](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fancy), and [hifalutin](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hifalutin). // The guidance counselor emphasized that students do not need to go to a hoity-toity college to achieve success.    [See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hoity-toity) Examples: "Most Summer Olympics show beach volleyball on a beach. This year's spikers will play in front of the Eiffel Tower because they can. And just in case equestrian events aren't hoity-toity enough, the 2024 [dressage](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dressage) and jumping will unfold at the Palace of Versailles." — Jen Chaney, Vulture, 24 May 2024 Did you know? In modern use, hoity-toity is used almost exclusively to describe someone who's got their nose stuck up in the air, or something suited for such a person. But for over a hundred years, hoity-toity was used solely as a noun referring to thoughtless and silly behavior. The noun originated as a rhyming [reduplication](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/reduplication) of the dialectical verb hoit, meaning "to play the fool." Accordingly, as an adjective hoity-toity was originally used to describe someone as thoughtless or silly—as when English writer [W. Somerset Maugham](https://www.britannica.com/biography/W-Somerset-Maugham) wrote in his 1944 novel [The Razor’s Edge](https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Razors-Edge-novel-by-Maugham) "very hoity-toity of me not to know that royal personage"—but today it is more likely to describe the royal [personage](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/personage), or someone who [puts on airs](https://bit.ly/3CfNZlU) as if they were a royal personage.