| 释义 |
hoity-toity, n., a., adv., int.|ˈhɔɪtɪˈtɔɪtɪ|
See also highty-tighty.
[app. a deriv. of hoit v., with reduplication; logically, the adj. ought to precede the n. The sense seems in later times to have gradually been influenced by high, height, and their family; this becomes explicit in the spelling highty-tighty.]
A. n.
1. Riotous or giddy behaviour; romping, frolic; disturbance, ‘rumpus’; flightiness. Also,
b. Assumption of superiority, ‘airs’, huffiness.
1668R. L'Estrange Vis. Quev. (1708) 100 The Widows I observ'd.. Chanting and Jigging to every Tune they heard, and all upon the Hoyty-Toyty, like mad Wenches of Fifteen. 1784O'Keefe Fontainebleau iii. iii. (L.), My mother..was a fine lady, all upon the hoity-toities, and so, good for nothing. 1837Carlyle Fr. Rev. III. vi. ii, If this Danton were to burst your mesh-work!..what a hoitytoity were there, Justice and Culprit changing places. 1875Browning Aristoph. Apol. 2374 After your three bouts At hoitytoity, great men with long words, And so forth.
2. A giddy or romping girl; a hoyden, romp. dial. Cf. highty-tighty n.
1719D'Urfey Pills I. 255 The Frowzy Browzy, Hoyty Toyty, Covent-Garden Harridan. 1796Grose Dict. Vulg. T., Hoity-toity, a hoity-toity wench; a giddy, thoughtless, romping girl.
B. adj. Frolicsome, romping, giddy, flighty. Also,
b. Assuming, haughty, petulant, huffy.
1690Dryden Amphit. ii. ii, And that hoighty toighty business ought, in conscience, to be over. 1713Steele Guardian No. 10 ⁋5 If any hoity-toity things make a fuss, they are sure to be taken to pieces the next visit. 1769F. Brooke Emily Montague (1784) I. iv. 16 There is generally a certain hoity-toity inelegance of form and manner at seventeen. 1820Keats Cap & Bells lxxix, See what hoity-toity airs she took. 1851Helps Comp. Solit. vii. (1874) 127 A good girl and not hoity-toity. 1896Sir W. Harcourt Sp. Ho. Com. 13 Feb., It is not to be got rid of by the use of, if I may use the phrase without offence, the hoity-toity language of the hon. and gallant member.
†C. adv. In a frolicsome or giddy manner. Obs.
1714Arbuthnot Harmony in Uproar Misc. Wks. 1751 II. 31 All of a sudden we run as mad as ever; and hoity toity away went we. 1763Bickerstaff Love in Village ii. iii. 18th Air, Hoity, toity, Whisking, frisking.
D. int. An exclamation expressing surprise with some degree of contempt, esp. at words or actions considered to show flightiness or undue assumption.
1695Congreve Love for L. iii. x, Hoity toity, what have I to do with his Dreams or his Divination? 1749Fielding Tom Jones vii. viii, Hoity toity!..madam is in her airs, I protest. 1838Dickens Nich. Nick. xxix, ‘Why he don't mean to say he's going! Hoity toity! Nonsense.’ 1883Mrs. Alexander Executor II. 91 ‘Hoity toity!’ cried Mr. Harding, a little surprised. ‘Well, you'll think better of it’.
Hence hoity-ˈtoityism, hoity-ˈtoityness, flightiness, huffiness, petulance. hoity-toity v. intr., to act in a hoity-toity manner, to romp inelegantly, to hoyden.
1790‘Toby Teach 'em’ Hist. Goody Goosecap 23 Miss Sally Scramble..minded nothing but hoity-toitying about, and had nothing but play in her head. 1820Miss Mitford in L'Estrange Life (1870) II. 106 A person whose hoity-toityness is depressing beyond conception. 1881T. Watts in Athenæum 3 Sept. 308/2 The talk gets naturally upon ‘lords’ in general, gentility, nonsense, and ‘hoity-toityism’ as the canker at the heart of modern civilization. |