John Buchan
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Can you be loof instead of aloof?
The English language has many words that contain a negative prefix, and for the most part these prefixes give us an easy way to parse the meaning of the prefix-less form: those who disagree fail to agree; to be unaware is to not be aware; and an amoral person is not concerned about the morality of their behavior.
But not every prefix that looks like a negative prefix is a negative prefix. While aloof is indeed formed from a prefix a- and a word loof, the prefix is not the negating one found in amoral, but is instead the prefix a- found in abed, aloud, and afire. Loof is a variant of luff, which in Middle English referred to the side of a ship that faces the wind; the earliest meaning of aloof was “to windward.” Soon after the word entered English it began to be used to mean “at a distance,” and soon after that, it took on the meaning of “physically or emotionally removed.”
Synonyms
Examples of aloof in a Sentence
Joe Klein, Time, 21 July 2003
Most American journalists who "do" politics cannot resist getting to know the Players. Walter Lippmann was typical of an earlier generation, the disinterested wise man who remained aloof, chiselling great thoughts on marble columns.
—Gore Vidal, Nation, 12 June 1995
Jeremy Price (this name and a few others have been changed), a black teacher from St. Paul's, tried a few times to make small talk, but he was a Brahmin from another planet: cool, ironic, aloof.
—Lorene Cary, Black Ice, 1991
Somehow, I remember the fireworks man as solitary, aloof, coveralled, perhaps sooty, staring straight ahead as he came, perhaps reflecting back on the trench-war violence he had just been a part of …
—George Plimpton, Fireworks, 1984
They tried to keep aloof from the politics of the day.
the new kid was really not so aloof as we thought him at first, just painfully shy
Natasha Degen, Artforum, 1 Nov. 2024
Her compatriots found her aloof, and some wanted to hurt her.
—Stephanie Zacharek, TIME, 29 Oct. 2024
Still, there was something aloof and solitary about him, too.
—Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 27 Sep. 2024
The New Yorker and the Times Magazine, GQ, Vogue, Esquire—all were run by aloof tyrants, typically described as legendary, who made every call before a small audience of tremulous editors.
—Christopher Carroll, Harper's Magazine, 23 Sep. 2024
See all Example Sentences for aloof 
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Cite this Entry
“Aloof.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/aloof. Accessed 25 Nov. 2024.
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