Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Overbearing pride or presumption; arrogance.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Excessive pride, presumption or arrogance (originally toward the gods).

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun overbearing pride or presumption

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Greek, excessive pride, wanton violence; see ud- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek ὕβρις (hybris, "insolence, sexual outrage").

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Examples

Comments

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  • I found it in a footnote on P 174 of Christopher Booker's "The Seven Basic Plots":

    Hence the true meaning behind the Greek notion of hubris, originally derived from hyper meaning 'over'. We shall look later at why the ancient Greeks saw the tragic pattern as one of hubris followed by nemesis. Although in the modern world the term hubris is often understood to mean a kind of cosmic arrogance or price (of the type inviting a fall), its derivation shows how it was originally meant to convey precisely that idea of 'stepping over the bounds' discussed here.

    May 11, 2007

  • Warning!! Doggerel Attack!!!

    Elegy for Eliot : The Lovesong of A.G. Spitzer

    Let us go then, you and I

    While the evening is spread out against the sky

    Like the Baghdad skyline behind Wolf Blitzer

    Or a criminal taken down by A.G. Spitzer

    In the room the women come and go

    “I’m called an escort, not a ho.�?

    The corridors of power are lonely, late at night

    The bad guys all day long you have to fight

    You deserve a little reward – maybe a cookie?

    Nope – even a hero needs some nookie.

    In the room the women come and go

    “Plastic works, a cheque, or cash to go.�?

    Temptation looms – a vision, out of reach.

    The voice of conscience: “Don’t you eat that peach!�?

    Too late! Our hero reaches for his cheques.

    Another politician laid low by the lure of sex.

    In the room the women come and go

    “Eliot? Oh yeah, huge ego and libido.�?

    I should have been a pair of ragged claws

    scuttling across the shores of silent seas.

    Instead my taste for high-priced whores

    Has made of me the emperor of sleaze.

    March 13, 2008

  • In the TV show Strangers With Candy, one of Principal Blackman's (played by Greg Hollimon) most famous sayings is "hubris, overweening pride". Gotta love it!

    April 7, 2008

  • Oedipus' overwhelming hubris led to his ultimate destruction

    May 29, 2008

  • Oedipus' overwhelming hubris led to his ultimate destruction

    May 29, 2008

  • Oedipus' overwhelming hubris led to his ultimate destruction

    May 29, 2008

  • When human hubris intrudes or manipulates the sacred, the consequence is inevitably humiliation

    December 5, 2008

  • My uncle was the most hubris person I know

    April 15, 2012

  • Etymology note: compare hybrid.

    April 16, 2018