580: highfalutin Jul 10, 2016

Plenty of words used in day-to-day speech originate from specific jargon. A couple of centuries ago, the Mississippi river proved to be useful for commerce, and as English-speakers and goods started flooding in, new words started to be created to accommodate the changing times. On the boats, the best and most expensive seats were at the top since they had the best view, but the problem was that the only was to go north in the river is by way of a steamship, and those ships had flutes at the top to let out smoke. So that the rich people didn't get covered in soot, tall smokestacks or high flutes were put in, thus giving us the word 'highfalutin' or 'highfaluting'.