proud

proud (proud) adjective

prouder, proudest

[Middle English, from Old English prūd, from Old French prou, prud, brave, virtuous oblique case of prouz, from Vulgar Latin *prōdis, from Late Latin prōde, advantageous, from Latin prōdesse, to be good : prōd-, for (variant of prō-). See pro-1 + esse, to be.]

proudʹly adverb

proudʹness noun

Synonyms: proud, arrogant, haughty, disdainful, supercilious. These adjectives mean filled with or marked by a high opinion of oneself and disdain for what one views as being unworthy. Proud can suggest dignity or justifiable self-respect or self-satisfaction, but it often implies conceit or vanity: "There is such a thing as a man being too proud to fight" (Woodrow Wilson). "I pray God to keep me from being proud" (Samuel Pepys). One who is arrogant is overbearingly proud and demands more power or consideration than is warranted: "All sensibly gave him wide berth, for he was a dangerous-looking man, chewing a toothpick with the arrogant sullenness of one who is willing to commit violence" (Stephen Hunter). Haughty suggests lofty, condescending pride, as by reason of high birth or station: "We hardly know an instance of the strength and weakness of human nature so striking and so grotesque as the character of this haughty, vigilant, resolute, sagacious blue-stocking[Frederick the Great]" (Macaulay). Disdainful emphasizes scorn or contempt: "Nor[let]grandeur hear with a disdainful smile,/The short and simple annals of the poor" (Thomas Gray). Supercilious implies haughty disdain: "His mother eyed me in silence with a supercilious air" (Tobias Smollett).