| 释义 |
highfalutin, -ing, n. and a. orig. U.S. slang.|haɪfəˈluːtɪn|
Also -ten, hifalutin.
[f. high a.: the origin of the second element is unknown; it was perh. a whimsical pronunciation of fluting, or a grandiose equivalent of flying or flown.]
A. n. Absurdly pompous speech or writing; bombast.
1848L. Coombs Sp. in New York 29 Sept. (Bartlett), A regular built fourth-of-July..Jefferson speech, making gestures to suit the highfalutens. 1864Lowell Rebellion Prose Wks. 1890 V. 133 It is a curious jumble of American sense and Southern highfaluting. 1885Century Mag. Jan. 347/2 Nothing like short meter for taking the hifalutin out of stuff. 1889Times 13 Apr. 11/2 ‘The misery of the Irish people’..is merely a bit of high falutin.
B. adj. Absurdly pompous or bombastic in style.
1839Spirit of Times 18 May 123/3 Them high-faluting chaps. 1857T. H. Gladstone Kansas 43 (Bartlett) No highfaluten airs here, you know. 1862B. Taylor Home & Abr. Ser. ii. 396 Those who endeavour to be sublime are often simply highfalutin. 1870Lowell Study Wind. 36 A good human bit of writing..not so highfaluting (let me dare the odious word!) as the modern style. 1941Coast to Coast 1941 49 And then hear some announcer in his highfalutin voice, telling her summer was coming. 1948Manch. Guardian Weekly 30 Sept. 9 When all the highfalutin and magical jargon of diplomacy is removed, you'll find the diplomats like a group of children aged about three or four. 1962New Statesman 2 Mar. 308/2 This is..a pleasing unsententious compilation, not really a lecture at all. Sir Compton is never highfalutin.
Hence highfalutiˈnation, writing or speaking in a highfalutin style.
1894Hole More Mem. 178 Don't think me bumptious or given to hifalutination. |