hoity-toity - a podcast by Merriam-Webster

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 30, 2021 is: hoity-toity \hoy-tee-TOY-tee\ adjective
Hoity-toity means "[pretentious](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pretentious), [fancy](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fancy), or [pompous](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pompous)."

// The guidance counselor emphasized that students do not need to go to a hoity-toity college to achieve success.   

[See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hoity-toity)

Examples:

"[Daniel Heider] says his post-high-school years were difficult. … 'I felt like I was at a disadvantage because everybody in DC is interning with a great congressman or is going to law school or is going to med school, and everybody's super hoity-toity and super important….'" — The Washingtonian, April 2021

Did you know?

Hoity-toity is believed to have been created as a rhyme based on the dialectal English word hoit, meaning "to play the fool." Hoity-toity can mean "foolish" (e.g., "… as though it were very hoity-toity of me not to know that royal personage." — W. Somerset [Maugham](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Maugham), The Razor’s Edge), but it is most often used to mean "pretentious."

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