A Stuffed Shirt
“Ser un creído/ ser un mam…
- Meaning
An arrogant person who shows off in order to let others know of their grandiosity, someone who is full-of-her/himself
- Origin
William Shakespeare used the expression “A stuffed person” to mean that someone was so full of themselves that people around felt irrated with their boastful arrogant manners. In the 1900´s, with the advent of men´s modern shirt and the use of starch in order to keep them straight up and being them a common garment of well-to-do men, it was suggested that a person who showed a fake show-off attitude was as stuffed as a shirt.
- Example
-When our business teacher was speaking about successful enterprises, he told us that his own company was so successful that he usually spent between $4,000 and $5,000 pesos everyday in restaurants.
-Did he really say so?
-Yeah! Isn´t it such a wonderful thing to do? Just imagine that you could live up to his standards!
-What I cannot accept is that you had believed that bunch of balloney. Have you seen his car?
-He drives a standard sedan 2010 model. But he says it is just for security reasons.
-Don´t you just get it? He is faking. He is just pretending. He is just a stuffed shirt.