These words pertain to the use of attention-getting devices or to the adoption of insincere, artificial, forced or pretentious behaviour. Mannerism and affection both disapprovingly indicate an instance of such behaviour, but mannerism is the milder of the two words, suggesting a noticeable but minor oddity of gesture or speech that may be either deliberate or habitual: adopting a few British speech mannerisms because she thought they lent her a mark of distinction; He waved his hands about as he talked – a nervous mannerism that he’d unconsciously picked up from his parents. Sometimes, the word can apply to any obtrusive stylistic device: coy mannerisms that mar her prose style. Affectation concentrates more exclusively on the deliberate adoption of anything that is ornate or pretentious: speech studded with faded poeticisms and other affectations ; He thought it was an affectation nowadays to include finger bowls in the table settings. The word can also serve as an abstract collective for pretentiousness in general: Sincerity and simplicity are the archenemies of affectation .

Air and pose can both indicate adopting a contrived appearance or manner in order to create an effect or to impress others: She walked with an air of haughty disdain past the other schoolchildren; his pose of being one of the world’s foremost authorities on contemporary art. Air might well suggest a momentary attempt to create a certain mood; as such, it is less disapproving than pose , which suggests greater contrivance and willingness to deceive. Pose can, in fact, extend to roles assumed by swindlers or extortionists: his pose of being a blind man, adopted to win the sympathy of his victims. Both words, but particularly air , can also refer not to deliberate role-playing but to the mood or impression that someone gives off: She faced us with an air of utter bewilderment; inadvertently discovering him pleading with his wife in a pose of genuine contrition.

Airs refers exclusively to grandiose affectations that do not correspond to one’s real situation; the word’s use is mostly restricted to a few stock phrases: giving oneself airs ; putting on airs . Preciosity refers to striving after a rarefied refinement that might appeal to an arty or genteel coterie: stilted speech and an overall preciosity of manner. Often the word refers to artistic style or aesthetic taste: a preciosity that made him prefer the Pre-Raphaelite painters to Turner. By contrast, exhibitionism refers to any sort of attention-getting acts. By implication these may well constitute the very opposite of refinement by being loud, garish crude or obstreperous: muscle boys strutting and flexing their biceps in self-fascinated exhibitionism ; the unruly exhibitionism of some habitués of the discothèque. In a psychiatric context, the word can refer to a serious disorder in which someone has a compulsion to expose his genitals to a passing stranger or bystander.