Orgulous

//ˈɔːɡjʊləs// adj

adj ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Arrogant, haughty, proud. archaic, literary

    "At that time there was a knight, the which was the king's son of Ireland, and his name was Lanceor, the which was an orgulous knight, and counted himself one of the best of the court; and he had great despite at Balin for the achieving of the sword, that any should be accounted more hardy, or of more prowess."

  2. 2
    Ostentatious; showy. archaic, literary, rare
  3. 3
    Swollen; augmented; excessive. obsolete

    "1967, John T. Sladek, Masterson and the Clerks, reprinted in Best SF Stories from New Worlds 4, edited by Michael Moorcock The smile became an orange balloon, orgulous and threatening."

  4. 4
    Dangerous, threatening. obsolete

Example

More examples

"At that time there was a knight, the which was the king's son of Ireland, and his name was Lanceor, the which was an orgulous knight, and counted himself one of the best of the court; and he had great despite at Balin for the achieving of the sword, that any should be accounted more hardy, or of more prowess."

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English orgulous, orgeilous, derived from Old French orgueilleus, orgoillus (“proud”), from orgoill, orgueil (“pride”), from Old Dutch *urgol (“pride”). Cognate with Old High German urguol (“excellent”), Old English orgol (“pride”). Perhaps from a Proto-West Germanic *uʀgōllju; compare Old English or- (“out”), *gōl (“boast; showiness; pomp; splendor”) (related to Old English galan (“to sing”), whence Modern English gale). Also, possibly, in part from Old French orgoill, derived from Vulgar Latin *orgōllia, *orgōlla, from Proto-West Germanic *orgōllja, from the same Proto-Germanic source. Cognate with Old High German urguol, urguoli, urgilo (“pride”), Italian orgoglio, Spanish orgullo, Portuguese orgulho, among many other Romance cognates.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.