Bossy vs Imperious - What's the difference?
bossy | imperious | Synonyms |
Tending to give orders to others, especially when unwarranted; domineering.
(US, informal, dated) A cow or calf.
* about 1900 , O. Henry,
Domineering, arrogant, or overbearing.
* 1866 – , translated by C. J. Hogarth
Urgent.
* 1891 –
(obsolete) Imperial or regal.
* 1895 –
Imperious is a synonym of bossy.
As adjectives the difference between bossy and imperious
is that bossy is tending to give orders to others, especially when unwarranted; domineering while imperious is domineering, arrogant, or overbearing.As a noun bossy
is a cow or calf.bossy
English
Etymology 1
Adjective
(er)Synonyms
* dictatorial, authoritarian, commanding, tyrannical, demanding, inflexible * see alsoEtymology 2
Diminutive of dialectal English boss, as used in the term ).Noun
(bossies)- A week before, while riding the prairies, Raidler had come upon a sick and weakling calf deserted and bawling. Without dismounting he had reached and slung the distressed bossy across his saddle, and dropped it at the ranch for the boys to attend to.
Etymology 3
imperious
English
Adjective
(-)- ...she glanced about her in an imperious , challenging sort of way, with looks and gestures that clearly were unstudied.
- Circumstances of an imperious nature, which it is unnecessary to relate here, had prevented him from taking service with that gallant army which had fought the disastrous campaigns ending with the fall of Corinth.
- She was quick, beautiful, imperious , while he was quiet, slow, and misty.