To put on airs, also give airs, put in airs, give yourself airs, is an English language idiom and a colloquial phrase meant to describe a person who acts superior, or one who behaves as if they are more important than others. [1] [2] [3]
To put on airs, also give airs, put in airs, give yourself airs, is an English language idiom and a colloquial phrase meant to describe a person who acts superior, or one who behaves as if they are more important than others. [1] [2] [3]
It is derived from the French word "air", meaning appearance, and was first used in the 1500s. [4] Variations of the phrase were used throughout the 1700s. [5] The phrase appears in the 1911 Dictionary of French and English by John Bellows. It appears under the entry for the French word poseur meaning to pose, [6] and more specifically "poseur: a person who pretends to be what he or she is not: an affected or insincere person". [7]
The phrase is derived from the French word "air" which meant appearance or look. The phrase has been in use since the 1500s. [4] To "Give Airs" was also referred to as a fake way of acting. [8] "Put on" is in modern emphatic use means: "to assume deceptively or falsely; to feign, affect or pretend." [9]
The phrase appears in the records of the 1661 Witchcraft trial of Florence Newton. It was said that a woman named Mary Longdon, "...believed her position gave her the right to airs and graces". [10]
It is considered an English Language idiom. [1] The phrase was used in a published book from the 1700s, Put in Airs. [8] The term was used in a book from 1759 by George Farquhar The Constant Couple "...when she puts on her airs, as you call it." [5] The phrase appears also in 1776 in a book by Francis Beaumont called Humorous Lieutenant: "You can give yourself Airs sometimes..." [11]
Amidst the United States Civil War, in 1864, a minstrel song (a genre now considered to be racially offensive) with a chorus and eight verses was published. It includes these lyrics: "Oh! white folks listen, will you now, this darkey's going to sing -.," and including two verses about personal vanity, followed by five on various Union Army's victories over the Confederacy, concluding: "Now where's this boasted chivalry, who sport the Stars and Bars? / Why they're learning from our Yankee boys the way to put on airs." [12] [13]
It has been variously defined as for example, in an 1869 textbook says: "Put on a counterfeit appearance" [14] An 1882 dictionary says: "To put on airs, to assume airs of importance." [15] Another more modern usage: "put on airs and graces to behave affectedly." [16] Typified by false claims of mastery, superiority or pretense. [17] [18]
Putting on airs is an example of divergence behavior, that can be, acting in a contrary way to dissociate oneself from their peers. It is similar to acting boorishly at a wedding reception. [19]
In the SpongeBob SquarePants episode Tea at the Treedome, Patrick Star refers to SpongeBob's description of Sandy Cheeks's air helmet as "fancy talk" for "puts on airs". [20]
An idiom is a phrase or expression that typically presents a figurative, non-literal meaning attached to the phrase. Some phrases which become figurative idioms, however, do retain the phrase's literal meaning. Categorized as formulaic language, an idiom's figurative meaning is different from the literal meaning. Idioms occur frequently in all languages; in English alone there are an estimated twenty-five million idiomatic expressions.
An idiom dictionary is a dictionary or phrase book that lists and explains idioms – distinctive words or phrases having a figurative meaning that goes beyond the original semantics of the words.
A cliché is an element of an artistic work, saying, or idea that has become overused to the point of losing its original meaning or effect, even to the point of being weird or irritating, especially when at some earlier time it was considered meaningful or novel. In phraseology, the term has taken on a more technical meaning, referring to an expression imposed by conventionalized linguistic usage.
You can't have your cake and eat it (too) is a popular English idiomatic proverb or figure of speech. The proverb literally means "you cannot simultaneously retain possession of a cake and eat it, too". Once the cake is eaten, it is gone. It can be used to say that one cannot have two incompatible things, or that one should not try to have more than is reasonable. The proverb's meaning is similar to the phrases "you can't have it both ways" and "you can't have the best of both worlds."
The expression “the elephant in the room” is a metaphorical idiom in English for an important or enormous topic, question, or controversial issue that is obvious or that everyone knows about but no one mentions or wants to discuss because it makes at least some of them uncomfortable and is personally, socially, or politically embarrassing, controversial, inflammatory, or dangerous. The metaphorical elephant represents an obvious problem or difficult situation that people do not want to talk about.
O novo guia da conversação em portuguez e inglez, commonly known by the name English as She Is Spoke, is a 19th-century book written by Pedro Carolino, with some editions crediting José da Fonseca as a co-author. It was intended as a Portuguese–English conversational guide or phrase book. However, because the provided translations are usually inaccurate or unidiomatic, it is regarded as a classic source of unintentional humour in translation.
Literal translation, direct translation, or word-for-word translation is a translation of a text done by translating each word separately without looking at how the words are used together in a phrase or sentence.
The English-language idiom "raining cats and dogs" or "raining dogs and cats" is used to describe particularly heavy rain. It is of unknown etymology and is not necessarily related to the raining animals phenomenon. The phrase has been used at least since the 17th century.
To "trip the light fantastic" is to dance nimbly or lightly to music. The origin of the phrase is attributed to John Milton.
A phraseme, also called a set phrase, fixed expression, multiword expression, , is a multi-word or multi-morphemic utterance whose components include at least one that is selectionally constrained or restricted by linguistic convention such that it is not freely chosen. In the most extreme cases, there are expressions such as X kicks the bucket ≈ ‘person X dies of natural causes, the speaker being flippant about X’s demise’ where the unit is selected as a whole to express a meaning that bears little or no relation to the meanings of its parts. All of the words in this expression are chosen restrictedly, as part of a chunk. At the other extreme, there are collocations such as stark naked, hearty laugh, or infinite patience where one of the words is chosen freely based on the meaning the speaker wishes to express while the choice of the other (intensifying) word is constrained by the conventions of the English language. Both kinds of expression are phrasemes, and can be contrasted with ’’free phrases’’, expressions where all of the members are chosen freely, based exclusively on their meaning and the message that the speaker wishes to communicate.
To kick the bucket is an English idiom considered a euphemistic, informal, or slang term meaning "to die". Its origin remains unclear, though there have been several theories.
The phrase "apple of my eye" refers in English to something or someone that one cherishes above all others. Originally, the phrase was simply an idiom referring to the pupil of the eye.
"Call a spade a spade" is a figurative expression. It refers to calling something "as it is"—that is, by its right or proper name, without "beating about the bush", but rather speaking truthfully, frankly, and directly about a topic, even to the point of bluntness or rudeness, and even if the subject is considered coarse, impolite, or unpleasant.
An idiom is a common word or phrase with a figurative, non-literal meaning that is understood culturally and differs from what its composite words' denotations would suggest; i.e. the words together have a meaning that is different from the dictionary definitions of the individual words. By another definition, an idiom is a speech form or an expression of a given language that is peculiar to itself grammatically or cannot be understood from the individual meanings of its elements. For example, an English speaker would understand the phrase "kick the bucket" to mean "to die" – and also to actually kick a bucket. Furthermore, they would understand when each meaning is being used in context.
The quick and the dead is an English phrase originating in William Tyndale's English translation of the New Testament (1526), "I testifie therfore before god and before the lorde Iesu Christ which shall iudge quicke and deed at his aperynge in his kyngdom" [2 Tim 4:1], and used by Thomas Cranmer in his translation of the Nicene Creed and Apostles' Creed for the first Book of Common Prayer (1540). In the following century the idiom was referenced both by Shakespeare's Hamlet (1603) and the King James Bible (1611). More recently the final verse of The Book of Mormon, refers to "...the Eternal Judge of both quick and dead".
No worries is an expression seen in English meaning "do not worry about that", "that's all right", "forget about it" or "sure thing". It is similar to the American English "no problem". The phrase is widely used in Australian speech and represents a feeling of friendliness, good humour, optimism and "mateship" in Australian culture. The phrase has been referred to as the national motto of Australia.
"Chewing the fat" or "chew the rags" are English expressions for gossiping or making friendly small talk, or a long and informal conversation with someone.
In the traditional grammar of Modern English, a phrasal verb typically constitutes a single semantic unit composed of a verb followed by a particle, sometimes combined with a preposition. Alternative terms include verb-adverb combination, verb-particle construction, two-part word/verb or three-part word/verb and multi-word verb.
"Après moi, le déluge" is a French expression attributed to King Louis XV of France, or in the form "Après nous, le déluge" to Madame de Pompadour, his favourite. It is generally regarded as a nihilistic expression of indifference to whatever happens after one is gone, though it may also express a more literal forecasting of ruination. Its meaning is translated by Brewer in the forms "When I am dead the deluge may come for aught I care", and "Ruin, if you like, when we are dead and gone."
{{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)put on airs: When you put on airs, you act like you're the master of something. If you wear a top hat and insist that everyone call you "sir" or "madam" while you boss them around, then you put on airs.
