haughty adj.

c. 1300, haut, "great, high;" mid-15c., "high in one's own estimation, haughty," from Old French haut (11c.) "main, principal; proud, noble, dignified; eminent; loud; grand," literally "high," from Latin altus "high," literally "grown tall," from PIE root *al- (2) "to grow, nourish;" with initial h- in French by influence of Frankish hoh "high." Spelling in English altered to -gh- 16c. by influence of caught, naught, etc., or of high, or perhaps by the belief that it was a Germanic word. Related: Haughtily.

adjective suffix, "full of or characterized by," from Old English -ig, from Proto-Germanic *-iga- (source also of Dutch, Danish, German -ig, Gothic -egs), from PIE -(i)ko-, adjectival suffix, cognate with elements in Greek -ikos, Latin -icus (see -ic). Originally added to nouns in Old English; used from 13c. with verbs, and by 15c. even with other adjectives (for example crispy). Adjectives such as hugy, vasty are artificial words that exist for the sake of poetical metrics.