superiority

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French superiorite and its source Medieval Latin superioritās (“overlordship; quality of being superior”),^[2][3][4][5] from Latin superior (“higher”) and the suffix -tās.^[2][3] Etymonline also allows formation in English from the adjective and -ity.^[6] The French word meant the quality of being superior from 1409,^[2] and the Middle English Dictionary records superiorite from about 1475.^[7] Compare Italian superiorità, Spanish superioridad and Portuguese superioridade.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The position or right of a feudal superior, the lordship of an estate or land: 1393, in an Early Scots text.^[2] Merriam-Webster dates the word to the 14th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The feudal sense survived chiefly in Scots law, and is now historical.^[2] The general sense, higher rank, position or authority, is recorded from 1449;^[2] before 1500 the word also meant the state of being superior to another person in some quality.^[2] The sense of supremacy over a rival, prevailing over someone, is dated to 1548 in the OED and to the 1540s in Etymonline;^[2][6] it was applied to things, being better than others, from 1590,^[2] although Etymonline dates the sense "quality of being higher or greater than" to the 1690s.^[6] Johnson (1755) defined it as "pre-eminence; the quality of being greater or higher than another in any respect".^[8] The term superiority complex, an attitude of superiority that hides feelings of inferiority, comes from psychoanalysis.^[4]

Timeline

• 1393 – the position or rights of a feudal superior.^[2]
• 1449 – higher rank or authority.^[2]
• before 1500 – the state of being superior to someone in some quality.^[2]
• 1548 – supremacy over a rival.^[2][6]
• 1558 – in the plural, the rights and powers of a superior (now rare).^[2]
• 1590 – of things, the quality of being better than others.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The quality or state of being better, greater or higher than others: the superiority of the new vaccine over the old one.^[3][2][4]
2. Greater strength or numbers that allow one side to prevail; supremacy: air superiority.^[3][2]
3. In feudal and Scots law, the position or rights of a superior over land (now historical).^[2][4]
4. Higher rank, position or authority.^[2][4]

Word family

• superiority complex

Related words

• superior
• super-
• supreme
• inferiority

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.