You searched for:
“supercilious”
supercilious (soo" pur SIL i uhs) (adjective), more supercilious, most supercilious
1. Conveying a feeling that is suggestive of contempt: Hank curled his lip in a supercilious smile when he expressed a better solution to his wife.
2. Descriptive of a person's mannerism which shows arrogant superiority to and disdain of those someone views as unworthy: Mark's mother looked at his clothes with a supercilious attitude.
3. Characteristic of someone's behavior which is disdainful or contemptuous and characterized by pride or scorn: Anyone who arches his or her eyebrows and looks down their nose at someone else is showing "a high brow" or supercilious face.
4. Etymology: from Latin super, "above" + cilium, "eyelid".
© ALL rights are reserved.
© ALL rights are reserved.
© ALL rights are reserved.
Go to this Word A Day Revisited Index
2. Descriptive of a person's mannerism which shows arrogant superiority to and disdain of those someone views as unworthy: Mark's mother looked at his clothes with a supercilious attitude.
3. Characteristic of someone's behavior which is disdainful or contemptuous and characterized by pride or scorn: Anyone who arches his or her eyebrows and looks down their nose at someone else is showing "a high brow" or supercilious face.
4. Etymology: from Latin super, "above" + cilium, "eyelid".
When someone raises his or her eyebrows, it doesn't necessarily mean that that person is disdainful, contemptuous, etc. Such action may also express surprise, curiosity, etc.
Go to this Word A Day Revisited Index
so you can see more of Mickey Bach's cartoons.
This entry is located in the following units:
cilio-, cili-, cil-
(page 2)
-ous, -ious, -eous
(page 20)
super-, supra-, sur-
(page 5)