supercilious

英 [su?p?'s?l??s; sju?-] 美[,sup?'s?l??s]

GRE暢通詞匯

副詞:?superciliously;名詞:?superciliousness;

supercilious 高傲的，傲慢的

來(lái)自 supercilium,眉毛，-ous,形容詞后綴。比喻用法，形容人眉毛高揚(yáng)，目空一切。

supercilious: supercilious: [16] The etymological notion underlying supercilious is of raising the ‘eyebrows’ as a sign of haughty disdain. It comes from Latin superciliōsus, a derivative of supercilium ‘eyebrow’, hence ‘haughtiness’. This was a compound noun formed from the prefix super- ‘a(chǎn)bove’ and cilium ‘eyelid’ (source of the English biological term cilium ‘hair-like process’ [18], whose meaning evolved via an intermediate ‘eyelash’).
supercilious (adj.): 1520s, "lofty with pride, haughtily contemptuous," from Latin superciliosus "haughty, arrogant," from supercilium "haughty demeanor, pride," literally "eyebrow" (via notion of raising the eyebrow to express haughtiness), from super "above" (see super-) + second element akin to cilium "eyelid," related to celare "to cover, hide," from PIE root *kel- (2) "to conceal" (see cell).
Since cilium is more recent than supercilium, the former can be interpreted as a back-formation to the latter .... If indeed derived from the root *kel- 'to hide', we must still assume that a noun *kilium 'eyelid' existed, since the eyelid can 'hide' the eye, whereas the eyebrow does not have such a function. Thus, supercilium may originally have meant 'what is above the cilium'. [Michiel de Vaan, "Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages," Leiden, 2008]
Related: Superciliously; superciliousness.

2. The shop assistant was very supercilious towards me when I asked for some help.: 我要買東西招呼售貨員時(shí),那個(gè)售貨員對(duì)我不屑一顧.

3. Yet there was nothing sarcastic or supercilious in the way Ames spoke.: 可是艾姆斯說(shuō)話的口氣沒(méi)有絲毫的嘲諷或傲慢的味道.

5. Parkman occasionally allows a supercilious tone to creep into his writings.: 帕克曼間或在文章里流露出高傲的態(tài)度.