hoity-toity

1 of 2

noun

hoi·​ty-toi·​ty ˌhȯi-tē-ˈtȯi-tē 

ˌhī-tē-ˈtī-tē

: thoughtless giddy behavior

hoity-toity

2 of 2

adjective

1

: thoughtlessly silly or frivolous : flighty

2

: marked by an air of assumed importance : highfalutin

a hoity-toity college professor

The restaurant was too hoity-toity for my tastes.

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When should you use hoity-toity?

In modern use, hoity-toity is used almost exclusively to describe someone who's got their nose stuck up in the air, or something suited for such a person. But for over a hundred years, hoity-toity was used solely as a noun referring to thoughtless and silly behavior. The noun originated as a rhyming reduplication of the dialectical verb hoit, meaning "to play the fool." Accordingly, as an adjective hoity-toity was originally used to describe someone as thoughtless or silly—as when English writer W. Somerset Maugham wrote in his 1944 novel The Razor’s Edge "very hoity-toity of me not to know that royal personage"—but today it is more likely to describe the royal personage, or someone who puts on airs as if they were a royal personage.

Word History

Etymology

Noun

rhyming compound from English dialect hoit to play the fool

First Known Use

Noun

1668, in the meaning defined above

Adjective

1812, in the meaning defined at sense 1

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