biggity
English
Etymology
Apparently from big + -y, a suffix used to form adjectives meaning “having the quality of”, with an arbitrary middle syllable; compare uppity. Alternately, perhaps from big + -ety, a suffix used to extend monosyllabic words; compare hot diggety, hippity-hop. Attested in the Southern United States since the late nineteenth century.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈbɪɡɪti/
Audio (Southern England) (file)
Adjective
biggity (comparative more biggity, superlative most biggity)
- (US, African-American Vernacular) Conceited, uppity.
- 1883, Mark Twain, chapter 58, in Life on the Mississippi:
- [T]he captains were very independent and airy—pretty ‘biggity,’ as Uncle Remus would say.
- 1900, Charles W. Chesnutt, chapter 33, in The House Behind The Cedars:
- "Oh, Jeff Wain!" returned the countryman slightingly; "yas, I knows 'im, an' don' know no good of 'im. One er dese yer biggity, braggin' niggers—talks lack he own de whole county."
- 1929, William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury, Folio Society, published 2016, page 15:
- “Aint you talking biggity. I bet you better not let your grandmammy hear you talking like that.”
Synonyms
References
- “biggity”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
- “biggity, adj. (and adv.).”, in OED Online
, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2008.
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