Lofty…of a noble or exalted nature – towering, soaring, grand and fine. Decent, worthy, virtuous and good.
Lofty ideals verses lofty disdain…arrogant, conceited, high-minded and vain. Proud, prissy, superior and smug.
Noun…loftiness
Adverb…loftily
It’s a word that rolls off your tongue like a melted mint.
He was lofty in all he said and did, always reaching for the common good.
Her loftiness made her such a snoot, no one wished to be around her.
Interesting how it has such contrasting sides…corduroy verses nice cotton. To go from nobility to snootiness is quite a leap, proving once again how amazing the English language is and how fortunate we are to fish from its shore.
Occasionally I read Webster’s allowing it to open at will scanning the Cs, Ks or Ms…mining, minion, miniseries, miniskirt…misbegotten, misbehave, misbelieve, miscalculate…mobster, moccasin, mocha and mock…
entranced with their sounds and inflections.
As a writer they infiltrate your senses like smoke sprinting up your nose.
Preferring the first meaning, I will continue to hone the skill of a lofty nature ridding it of any arrogance, aloofness and pompous conceit.
Lofty, a word with two worthy opponents more than willing to duke it out.
SB
Susannah, I share your love of words. I never thought about the double meanings of ‘loftily’. We’ve created plenty of double meanings lately with bad, cool, etc.
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It’s a nice word. I so agree. 🙂
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You could say much the same about “superior”.
There’s a ying to every yang.
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I’m certain if researched, there are many such words.
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This is so funny since I’m working on a post so similar. Boy do we think alike. 😀
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There is a thread my friend, no question 🙂
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My husband, who always has to “figure things out” basically has a never ending puzzle with the English language. It drives him crazy that there are duel meanings for words…lol. I usually hear him mumbling …”why”?
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Must be nice married to a wordsmith.
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Hes dyslexic and the struggle is real..dear lord I’m a human spell check!
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I can think of worse things 🙂
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