The most extreme or flagrant form of hypocrisy; pretending to have virtues or beliefs that one does not actually possess to an extraordinary degree.
From arch- (supreme, extreme) + hypocrisy (the practice of claiming to have virtues one does not possess). Hypocrisy comes from Old French hypocrisie, from Late Latin hypocrisis, from Greek hypokrisis (acting, feigning).
Religious critics and satirists absolutely loved this word—it let them express that someone wasn't just two-faced, but catastrophically, offensively, monumentally hypocritical, which is why you see it often in 19th-century social reform literature.
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