upstart
pronunciation
How to pronounce upstart in British English:
UK [ˈʌpstɑ:t]
How to pronounce upstart in American English:
US [ˈʌpstɑrt]
-
- Noun:
- an arrogant or presumptuous person
- a person who has suddenly risen to a higher economic status but has not gained social acceptance of others in that class
- a gymnastic exercise performed starting from a position with the legs over the upper body and moving to an errect position by arching the back and swinging the legs out and down while forcing the chest upright
-
- Adjective:
- characteristic of someone who has risen economically or socially but lacks the social skills appropriate for this new position
Word Origin
- upstart
- upstart: [16] An upstart is etymologically simply someone who has ‘started up’ – but start in its early sense ‘jump, spring, rise’. Start-up was an early alternative version of the word (‘That young start-up hath all the glory of my overthrow’, says Don John in Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing 1599), but it did not survive the 17th century.
- upstart (n.)
- 1550s, "one newly risen from a humble position to one of power, importance, or rank, a parvenu," also start-up, from up (adv.) + start (v.) in the sense of "jump, spring, rise." As an adjective from 1560s. Compare the archaic verb upstart "to spring to one's feet," attested from c. 1300.
Example
- 1. Aipac has maintained a lofty public silence about this doveish upstart .
- 2. But what happens when the next upstart distracts the attention of facebook users ?
- 3. Upstart amazon.com has thus become the best-k n own name on the net .
- 4. On december 18th france 's telecoms regulator awarded a new mobile licence to iliad , an upstart telecoms firm , even though mr sarkozy had publicly voiced misgivings .
- 5. A foreign diplomat adds that countries such as egypt and saudi arabia , which might in the past have blocked a gulf upstart from flaunting such ambition , no longer have the will to try .