Word of the Day: SUPERCILIOUS

su·per·cil·ious

adjective \ˌsü-pər-ˈsi-lē-əs, –ˈsil-yəs\

: having or showing the proud and unpleasant attitude of people who think that they are better or more important than other people

: coolly and patronizingly haughty <reacted to their breach of etiquette with a supercilious smile>

— su·per·cil·ious·ly adverb

— su·per·cil·ious·ness noun

<the supercilious art dealer rolled her eyes when we asked if she had anything for under $1,000>
While Americans did congregate together at baseball games, … amusement parks, dance halls and arcades, tensions still roiled. The middle class may not have been as supercilious as the elites it replaced, but middle-class reformers were every bit as strident as those elites in condemning … working-class entertainments, and for the same reason: These entertainments constituted a challenge to the class’s social control. —Neal Gabler, Life: The Movie, 1998
Cross’ popular academic sleuth Kate Fansler returns, this time as a guest professor at the down-at-the-heels Schuyler Law School, where she has been asked to teach a course on literature and the law. Ardent feminist Kate soon finds that not only is Schuyler a bastion of intolerant, supercilious white males, but worse, any attempt by women or minorities to be heard is quickly quashed by the old-boy network. —Emily Melton, Booklist, 15 Dec. 1994
Jorgeson had a sharp tongue and was so supercilious in his remarks that I didn’t know quite how seriously I should take this talk, but I enjoyed his humor and I did believe he had the sensibilities of an artist. —Thom Jones, New Yorker, 2 Dec. 1991
BnC had a supercilious attitude by claiming celebrity status upon public discovery of his 2009 Flickr account.

Latin superciliosus, from supercilium eyebrow, haughtiness, from super- + -cilium eyelid (akin to celare to hide) — more at hell

First Known Use: 1614