supercilious
su·per·ci·lious
adjective
1.
having or showing arrogant superiority to and disdain of those one views as unworthy
- “some economists are disdainful of their colleagues in other social disciplines”
- “haughty aristocrats”
- “his lordly manners were offensive”
- “walked with a prideful swagger”
- “very sniffy about breaches of etiquette”
- “his mother eyed my clothes with a supercilious air”
- “a more swaggering mood than usual” W.L.Shirer
2.
- “curled his lip in a supercilious smile”
- “spoke in a sneering jeering manner”
- “makes many a sharp comparison but never a mean or snide one”
Origin
Learned borrowing from Latin superciliōsus (“haughty”).
Related words
Word family
WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.