upstart

From Middle English upstarten, upsterten, equivalent to up- +‎ start.

• (General Australian, Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈʌp.stɑːt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈʌp.stɑɹt/

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upstart (plural upstarts)

1. One who has suddenly gained wealth, power, or other prominence, but either has not received social acceptance or has become arrogant or presumptuous.
   • 1631, Francis [Bacon], “VI. Century.”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], 3rd edition, London: […] William Rawley; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC:

     upstarts […] they call in reproach mushrooms

   • 1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], chapter XVIII, in Emma: […], volume II, London: […] [Charles Roworth and James Moyes] for John Murray, →OCLC, page 345:

     [S]he has no fair pretence of family or blood. She was nobody when he married her, barely the daughter of a gentleman; but ever since her being turned into a Churchill she has out-Churchill’d them all in high and mighty claims: but in herself, I assure you, she is an upstart.”

   • 2006, Edwin Black, chapter 1, in Internal Combustion‎:

     But electric vehicles and the batteries that made them run became ensnared in corporate scandals, fraud, and monopolistic corruption that shook the confidence of the nation and inspired automotive upstarts.

   • 2012 June 29, Kevin Mitchell, “Roger Federer back from Wimbledon 2012 brink to beat Julien Benneteau”, in The Guardian‎, archived from the original on 15 November 2016:

     Where the Czech upstart [Lukáš] Rosol, ranked 100 in the world, all but blew [Rafael] Nadal's head off with his blunderbuss in a fifth set of unrivalled intensity on Thursday night, [Julien] Benneteau, a more artful citizen, used a rapier to hurt his vaunted foe before falling just short of a kill. In the end, it was he who staggered from the scene of the fight.

2. The meadow saffron.[1]

• arriviste
• nouveau riche
• parvenu

upstart (comparative more upstart, superlative most upstart)

1. Acting like a parvenu.
2. self-important and presumptuous.

upstart (third-person singular simple present upstarts, present participle upstarting, simple past and past participle upstarted)

1. to rise suddenly, to spring
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “(please specify the book)”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     Th' Elfe therewith astownd,
     Upstarted lightly from his looser make,
     And his unready weapons gan in hand to take.

   • 1859, Alfred Tennyson, “(please specify the page)”, in Idylls of the King, London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC:

     the beauteous beast
     Scared by the noise upstarted at our feet

   • 1845 February, — Quarles [pseudonym; Edgar Allan Poe], “The Raven”, in The American Review‎, volume I, number II, New York, N.Y., London: Wiley & Putnam, […], →OCLC:

     "Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!" I shrieked, upstarting—

• start up, start-up, startup