highfalutin
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What is the definition and pronunciation of “highfalutin”?
It's the word of the day for August 2nd. Today's word is highfalutin, spelled as one word, H-I-G-H-F-A-L-U-T-I-N. Highfalutin is an adjective. Someone or something described as highfalutin seems or is trying to seem great or important.
How is “highfalutin” used in a real‑world example from the Dallas Morning News?
It's the word used in a sentence from the Dallas Morning News. Standing 787 feet tall, the tower was one of the last of the era, when downtown Dallas' skyline was defined by highfalutin oil execs, bankers, financiers, and the architects who used steel, concrete, and glass to erect opulent monuments to their economic success. Highfalutin has a fine purpose, to describe pretentious people or language without making the person using it sound, well, pretentious.
Were you to describe the high-flown speech of another using other adjectives available to you, such as grandiloquent, fustian, or oratund, you might be found guilty of the faux pas yourself.
Why does “highfalutin” describe pretentious language without sounding pretentious itself?
Highfalutin first appeared as American slang in the early 1800s, and like many slang terms, it has had a lot of different spellings, including highfaluting. The word most likely originated as a combination of the adjective high, as used in the phrase high and mighty, and the participle fluting. Why fluting? Maybe down-to-earth Americans thought that the overly formal, condescending, and flowery speech of the high and mighty sounded like the shrill and biting high tones of a flute.
What is the origin and historical evolution of the word “highfalutin”?
Whatever the reasoning, Highfalutin has remained a staple of down-home American speech ever since.
With your Word of the Day, I'm Peter Sokolowski.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the definition and pronunciation of “highfalutin”?
0:06–0:29
2
How is “highfalutin” used in a real‑world example from the Dallas Morning News?
0:29–1:16
3
Why does “highfalutin” describe pretentious language without sounding pretentious itself?
1:16–1:50
4
What is the origin and historical evolution of the word “highfalutin”?
1:50–2:08