The “high and mighty” idiom refers to unwarranted arrogance, often used to mock rulers for taking advantage of their status. It is used to describe arrogant behavior and overstepping authority, and can be used sarcastically. It is rarely used to describe someone’s ascent to a higher status.
When people use the term “high and mighty” as an idiom in everyday speech, they are usually referring to the unwarranted arrogance in an individual. For example, a person with wealth and power who acted as if she was entitled to better treatment than others might be described as acting as if she were tall and powerful. In theory, the term could also be used complementary to describe how powerful someone was, but in actual usage, it is almost always intended to insult or make them reconsider their relative status.
Over the centuries, people born with royal blood have often been considered “born of nobility.” The public often thought they had a higher status than regular people, and some cultures actually attributed this to an association with the deity. Experts believe the “high and mighty” idiom developed as a way to mock rulers for taking too much advantage of their status. For example, if a ruler was eating expensive food while his people were starving, that could be cause for ridicule at the individual using the idiom. Over time, the application of the term has evolved, with people using it to describe behavior rather than a reference to a specific type of birth background.
One of the main reasons people use this idiom is to describe arrogant behavior and people who behave with a sense of entitlement and ignore the needs of others might be mocked by using the term. When people use this idiom in a confrontational way, they may want to cause an individual to reconsider her arrogance, bringing the person back to Earth, but it is also often used behind a person’s back. For example, if a manager acted tall and powerful, workers under him might use the term in conversations about him while he was not present.
Another common use of the “high and mighty” idiom is when someone oversteps his or her limits of authority. For example, if an equal person in a group starts bossing people around, that person might anger his co-workers and they might let him know right away that he should stop acting so high and mighty. This kind of use of the term could work in any situation where people are of relatively equal status, including many types of personal relationships.
Sometimes the term is used with a lot of intentional sarcasm. For example, someone at a party might say, “Tom would be here, but now he’s so tall and powerful that he doesn’t want to hang out with his old friends anymore.” In theory, the term could also be used complementary to describe someone’s ascent to a higher status, but this is basically unknown.
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