uppity

uppity pronunciation

/UP-ih-tee/

Meaning

Call somebody uppity when they act like they are better than the room they came from. Bossy, stuck-up, too big for their britches. In redneck talk it is sharp class shade aimed at folks who forget where they started. The word also has an ugly Jim Crow history of being used to put Black people "back in their place," so it can land hard depending who says it and about whom.

How folks use it

• “She's gotten too uppity to sit with us at the diner.”
• “Don't get uppity with your mama just because you got a new truck.”

Origin and etymology

Southern U.S. coinage from up plus a -y ending. Print turns up in Atlanta papers by 1878 and in Joel Chandler Harris's Uncle Remus material soon after. From the start it meant haughty or above yourself. Later it got loaded with racist use under Jim Crow, which is why the word still carries more weight than plain "stuck-up."

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