Aloof
WordNet
adjective
(1) Remote in manner
"Stood apart with aloof dignity"
"A distant smile"
"He was upstage with strangers"
adverb
(2) In an aloof manner
"The local gentry and professional classes had held aloof for the school had accepted their sons readily enough"
WiktionaryText
Etymology
From a- + Middle English loof (="weather gage," also "windward direction"), probably from Dutch loef (="the weather side of a ship"); originally a nautical order to keep the ship's head to the wind, thus to stay clear of a lee-shore or some other quarter, hence the figurative sense of "at a distance, apart" http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=aloof
Adverb
- At or from a distance, but within view, or at a small distance; apart; away.
- Our palace stood aloof from streets. --Dryden.
- Without sympathy; unfavorably.
- To make the Bible as from the hand of God, and then to look at it aloof and with caution, is the worst of all impieties. --I. Taylor.