Word: conceit
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Dates: during 1870-1879
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TAKE one Latin School boy of a tender age, - one who has trodden on the edge of dangerous and unknown truths preferred, - two cupfuls of platitudes, four cupfuls of conceit; then add two pounds of feeling allusions to the effect that the great majority of your friends never use soap and water, and don't know enough to open their bedroom windows at night. Garnish the dish with "it seems to me," and sprinkle freely with the pronoun I. Serve with grandiloquence and bombast...
...reflected calmly upon the matter and could not discover that the class was to blame. So they let him return once more, and what was left of the Freshman class immediately broke its other leg. The Faculty were furious. They thought it would have been a happy conceit on the part of the class if it had started with its neck, and had broken that first instead of stringing itself out in this provoking manner. And again the generous-spirited man spoke up, and said that they ought not to upbraid the class, if the class had enjoyed...
...seen Brown for several years; does n't suppose he should recognize him now. When questioned more closely, he admits he does not know Brown personally, but has heard a great deal about him. This is what most of his intimate friendships amount to. But his conceit is impenetrable, and when his ignorance is revealed he bears the disclosure as calmly as if it were a confirmation of his statements...
...PROFESSOR is credited with the following: "Nothing can exceed the stupidity of a Freshman when he first comes here, unless it is his conceit after he has been here a few months and thinks that he knows everything...
...proceed to the story, this interesting young man goes out "buggy-riding" with a young lady who is described as an incorrigible flirt, but who is really in love with her companion. Why, with his insufferable conceit, he is not aware of this fact, we are not told; at any rate, he is not aware of it, and proceeds to lecture the young lady on the sin of flirtation. She is so cut to the heart that she persuades the horse to run away, throws the reins out of the buggy, and faints. By a wonderful gymnastic feat the Puppy...