Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(orig. US black) haughty, conceited, bumptious.

1881		J.C. Harris Uncle Remus 69: Like po’in’ spring water on one er deze yer biggity fices.
1883		‘Mark Twain’ Life on the Mississippi (1914) 511: The captains were very independent and airy – pretty ‘biggity,’ as Uncle Remus would say.
1887		C. Chesnutt ‘The Goophered Grapevine’ in Conjure Woman (1899) 23: Fac’, he got so biggity dat Mars Jackson, de oberseah, ha’ ter th’eaten ter whip ’im.
1888		Butler Citizen (PA) 15 June 1/4: ‘Townsfolk air mighty bigaty,’ she added.
1892		Wheelng Dly Intelligencer (VA) 26 May 6/1: Niggers done get so biggity dose days [...] Dey ain’t got no manners now, dey’s all alike black and white; dey’s all biggity.
1898		News & Herald (Winnsboro, SC) 22 Dec. 2/1: Representative Bailey is a little too ‘biggety’ in trying to hit a lick at Joe Wheeler.
1902		P.L. Dunbar Jest Of Fate (1903) 11: Hit sho’ do mek’ him biggety, an’ a biggety po’ niggah is a ’bomination befo’ de face of de Lawd.
1905		J.W. Carr ‘Words from Northwest Arkansas’ in DN III:i 70: bigotty, adv. Haughty. ‘She don’t need to be so bigotty, I’m as good as she is.’.
1911		French Broad Hustler (Hendersonville, NC) 12 Jan. 5/1: Makes you proud, makes you feel biggerty, to think that you live in Hendersonville.
1919		Bogalusa Enterprise (LA) 15 May 2/3: A bishop of the African Methodist Church [...] seems to be afflicted with what the darkeys call ‘biggety’ talk.
1926		Z.N. Hurston Sweat (1995) 959: He done got too biggety to live.
1935		Z.N. Hurston Mules and Men (1995) 171: And don’t git biggity nobody and let yuh head start more than yo’ rump kin stan’.
1947		S. Lewis Kingsblood Royal (2001) 135: I like the white fellows I work with better than the biggerty guys Miss Sophie talks about.
a.1948		(con. early 1930s) C. McKay Harlem Glory (1990) 77: A new soul from the upper realms of biggity and dicty iniquity of Harlem.
1953		J. Thompson Criminal (1993) 108: They were always biggity and back-talky.
1954		(con. 1920s–30s) J.O. Killens Youngblood (1956) 176: Robby had already smoked a couple of cigarettes, and he was feeling grown-up and biggedy.
1958		C. Himes Real Cool Killers (1969) 83: I ain’t gettin’ biggety [...] I just want to get the hell outen here.
1962		(con. WWII) J.O. Killens And Then We Heard The Thunder (1964) 268: You’re too goddamn biggedy!
1972		N.C. Heard To Reach a Dream 104: She pointed at the bedroom where his things were strewn, shredded and slit. ‘Talk about that the next time you feel biggety, you sonofabitch!’.
1980		J.L. Gwaltney Drylongso 220: These ol’ noices ain’ no bettah! [...] they tryin’ to be biggety with us.
2003		C.M. Dean-Burrows I See Da Sea Rise 106: bigaty – bigot, used as adj. to describe a person who is a bigot.