Impertinent vs Supercilious - What's the difference?
impertinent | supercilious | Related terms |
insolent, ill-mannered
* Tillotson
* Jeremy Taylor
irrelevant (opposite of pertinent)
An impertinent individual.
* (Maria Edgeworth)
Arrogantly superior; showing contemptuous indifference; haughty.
* 2013 May 23, , "
*
Impertinent is a related term of supercilious.
As adjectives the difference between impertinent and supercilious
is that impertinent is insolent, ill-mannered while supercilious is arrogantly superior; showing contemptuous indifference; haughty.As a noun impertinent
is an impertinent individual.impertinent
English
Adjective
(en adjective)- things that are impertinent to us
- How impertinent that grief was which served no end!
Usage notes
Although, historically, definition 2 was the original (derived from the French below) usage; meaning gradually changed to definition 1. More recently general usage has come to, once again, incorporate definition 2. As many older speakers will consider definition 2 incorrect, avoiding the word altogether may be advisable. The construction "not pertinent" is one possible alternative.Synonyms
* See alsoNoun
(en noun)- comfortably recessed from curious impertinents
supercilious
English
Adjective
(en adjective)British Leader’s Liberal Turn Sets Off a Rebellion in His Party," New York Times (retrieved 29 May 2013):
- Buffeted by criticism of his policy on Europe, battered by rebellion in the ranks over his bill to legalize same-sex marriage and wounded by the perception that he is supercilious , contemptuous and out of touch with mainstream Conservatism, Mr. Cameron earlier this week took the highly unusual step of sending a mass e-mail (or, as he called it, “a personal note”) to his party’s grass-roots members.
- Now he was a sturdy, straw haired man of thirty with a rather hard mouth and a supercilious manner.