1. not friendly or forthcoming; cool and distant: "they were courteous but faintly aloof"
▪ conspicuously uninvolved:"he stayed aloof from the bickering"
Word Originmid 16th century: from a-2 (expressing direction) + luff. The term was originally an adverb in nautical use, meaning ‘away and to windward!’, i.e. with the ship's head kept close to the wind away from a lee shore etc. towards which it might drift. From this arose the sense ‘at a distance’.