Put on airs

{{Short description|English-language idiom referring to someone who acts superior}}

File:Petit Maitre au Palais Royal.jpg or fop of 1778]]

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.{{cite book |last1=Ammer |first1=Christine |title=The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms |date=2013 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Paw Prints |location=Boston & New York |isbn=978-0-547-67658-6 |id=1439527245

|orig-date=2008 |type=Paperback|page=174 |edition=2nd |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l_LxuR1jMVgC&dq=give+airs+1500s&pg=PA174 |access-date=4 October 2021}}{{cite web |title=put on airs |url=https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english-german/put-on-airs-give-oneself-airs |website=Dictionary Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |access-date=3 October 2021}}{{cite web |title=put on airs |url=https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/put+on+airs |website=The Free Dictionary |publisher=Farlex, Inc |access-date=3 October 2021}}

Origin

It is derived from the French word "air", meaning appearance, and was first used in the 1500s. Variations of the phrase were used throughout the 1700s. The phrase appears in the 1911 Dictionary of French and English by John Bellows. It appears under the entry for the French word {{lang|fr|poseur}} meaning to pose,{{cite book |last1=Bellows |first1=William |title=Dictionary of French and English |date=1911 |publisher=Henry Holt and Company |location=New York |page=466 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MDtKAAAAYAAJ&dq=give+airs+france&pg=PA466 |access-date=4 October 2021}} and more specifically "poseur: a person who pretends to be what he or she is not: an affected or insincere person".{{cite web |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/poseur |work=Merriam Webster Dictionary |title=Poseur|date=27 December 2023 }}

History

The phrase is derived from the French word "air" which means appearance or look. The phrase has been in use since the 1500s.{{cite web |title=Putting on airs |url=https://www.bookofthrees.com/putting-on-airs/ |website=The Book of Threes |date=14 July 2017 |access-date=3 October 2021}} To "Give Airs" was also referred to as a fake way of acting. "Put on" is in modern emphatic use means: "to assume deceptively or falsely; to feign, affect or pretend."{{cite book |title=Put on |work=Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary |volume=2 |page=1651 |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1971 |id=Library of Congress 76-188038}}

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".{{cite book |last1=Locke |first1=Tony |title=Irish Ghost Tales |date=October 5, 2015 |publisher=History Press |isbn=9780750966658 |page=33 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7HUTDQAAQBAJ&q=gave%20her%20the%20right%20to%20airs1500s |access-date=4 October 2021}}

It is considered an English Language idiom. The phrase was used in a published book from the 1700s, Put in Airs.{{cite web |title=Give Airs |url=https://www.theidioms.com/give-airs/ |website=The Idioms |access-date=3 October 2021}} 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."{{cite book |last1=Farquhar |first1=George |title=The Constant Couple |date=1759 |publisher=The Exchange |location=Edinburgh |page=41 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RrhaAAAAcAAJ&dq=The+Constant+Couple+puts+on+her+airs&pg=PA41 |access-date=4 October 2021}} The phrase also appears in 1776 in a book by Francis Beaumont called Humorous Lieutenant: "You can give yourself Airs sometimes..."{{cite book |last1=Beaumont |first1=Francis |last2=Fletcher |first2=John |title=Humorous Lieutenant |date=1776 |publisher=J. Tonson |location=London |page=10 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BWszAQAAMAAJ&dq=Humour+of+Age+giving+myself+great+airs&pg=RA2-PA10 |access-date=4 October 2021}}

Amidst the United States Civil War, in 1864, a minstrel song 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 includes 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."{{cite web |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IChBNQEACAAJ |title=How to Put on Airs (Minstrel Song)|location=United States |publisher=n.p. |year=1864 |oclc=476542085}}{{cite web |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E6MVAAAAYAAJ&dq=Put+on+airs&pg=PA17 |title=Folks that Put on Airs |work=Good Old-times |number=3 |page=17 |publisher=Wehman Bros |year=1914}}

It has been variously defined as for example, an 1869 textbook says: "Put on a counterfeit appearance"{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZFJpAAAAcAAJ&dq=Put+on+airs&pg=PA163 |page=63 |title=Text-book in the English Language for December 1869: Containing Addison's Spectator, Scott's Lay of the Last Minstrel, Byron's Prisoner of Chillon, and Full Notes Throughout.|location=India|first1=G.H. |last1=Ross |publisher=Sold for the Proprietor of the Madras Journal of Education, Madras Advertising and Printing Company |year=1869}} An 1882 dictionary says: "To put on airs, to assume airs of importance."{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y0Q-AAAAYAAJ&dq=put+on+airs&pg=PA579 |page=579 |last1=Ogilvie |first1=John |last2=Annandale |first2=Charles |title=The Imperial Dictionary of the English Language: A Complete Encyclopedic Lexcon, Literary, Scientific and Technological |location=United Kingdom |publisher=Blackie & Son |year=1882}} Another more modern usage: "put on airs and graces to behave affectedly."{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qc7xYDKEbSIC&dq=put+on+airs&pg=PA19 |last1=Feinstein |first1=Jessica |last2=Manser |first2=Martin |title=Heinemann English Dictionary |location=United Kingdom |publisher=Pearson Education |page=19 |year=2001|isbn=9780435104245 }} Typified by false claims of mastery, superiority or pretense.{{cite web |url=https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/put%20on%20airs |title=Put on airs |quote=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. |work=vocabulary.com |accessdate=October 7, 2021}}[https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/to+put+on+airs To put on airs] The Free Dictionary by Farlex

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.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JELvevZ1q5UC&dq=Put+on+airs+definition&pg=PA113 |isbn=9781405186681 |last1=Wardhaugh |first1=Ronald |title=An Introduction to Sociolinguistics |location=United Kingdom |publisher=Wiley |year=2010 |page=113|type=Paperback}}

References

Category:Colloquial terms

Put on airs

Origin

History

See also

References