self-righteousness

English

Etymology

From self-righteous +‎ -ness or self- +‎ righteousness.

Noun

self-righteousness

1. Confidence in one's own righteousness, self-assurance, smug.

   The book of Job warns us against self-righteousness, since no man can justify himself to God.

   • 1990, Elizabeth Brown-Guillory, “Preface”, in Wines in the Wilderness: Plays by African American Women from the Harlem Renaissance to the Present, New York, N.Y.: Praeger Publishers, →ISBN, page xiv:

     The heroines of these plays speak out against intraracial biases, stereotyping, lynchmobs, illiteracy, poverty, promiscuity, self-righteousness, verbally abusive men, rape, and miscegenation. […] Without warning the doctor, she chokes the life out of her child in order to keep him safe from white lynchmobs.

   • 2018 January 25, Amelia Gentleman, “Men-only clubs and menace: how the establishment maintains male power”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     There was no tedious self-righteousness on the night of the gala event. The charity auction invited bids for a night out at the Windmill Club (a lapdancing venue in Soho) and a course of plastic surgery, offered as an opportunity to “Add spice to your wife”

Translations

confident in one's own righteousness, self-assured, smug

• Dutch: zelfgenoegzaamheid (nl) f, eigengerechtigheid (nl) f
• Finnish: omahyväisyys (fi)
• French: dédain (fr) m
• Galician: desdén, condescendencia
• German: Selbstgerechtigkeit (de) f
• Macedonian: самоправедност f (samopravednost)
• Russian: самодово́льство (ru) n (samodovólʹstvo)
• Spanish: santurronería f, fariseísmo (es) m, mojigatería f, mojigatez f
• Swedish: egenrättfärdighet (sv) c, självrättfärdighet (sv) c

Further reading

• self-righteousness on Wikipedia.Wikipedia