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| "If you don't show up at a party, people will assume you're fat."--Stephanie Vanderkellen |
noun
Informal
A person in authority, especially one who is self-important. Used with his or her: His nibs says we must do it.
Origin: Perhaps alteration of nob2
You have your work cut out if Her Nibs is going to have parties and such.--Love Can Wait .
An American wouldn't use the expression--might we say, Mr. Fancy-pants?--but it is gloriously eloquent and the kind of word you know the meaning of just by hearing it. It makes me think of Julia Duffy playing Stephanie Vanderkellen on Newhart.
I think it's meant to suggest "His Lordship" without specifying an aristocrat. It's very class-specific -- by using it, you're twitting the person who's putting on airs while reveling in your own last of snobbery. Which is to say, it's reverse snobbery: "I'm better than that that person because I'm not a snob!" Pretty funny, actually.
ReplyDeleteWe used it a lot in my home. I find it coming out of my mouth occasionally like all the other scary sayings of my childhood. Don't you wish there was a cure for benign inherited quip lip.
ReplyDelete