gumptious

English

Etymology

gumption +‎ -ous

Adjective

gumptious (comparative more gumptious, superlative most gumptious)

1. (colloquial) Having gumption.
   • 1825, Jon Bee, John Badcock, Sportsman's Slang: A New Dictionary ...., page iii:

     Every reader has a right to know his authour’s motives for publishing at all, to be brought acquainted with his means of performance and his eligibility for the task; and the latter having likewise his rights to assert, this mutuality begets the undisputed custom of preface—the more gumptious the better.

   • 1840, Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton, My Novel, by Pisistratus Caxton: Or, Varieties in English Life:

     She was always—not exactly proud like, but what I calls gumptious.” “I never heard that word before,” said the Parson, laying down his knife and fork. “Bumptious, indeed, though I believe it is not in the dictionary, has crept into familiar parlance, especially amongst young folks at school and college.” “Bumptious is bumptious, and gumptious is gumptious,” said the landlord, delighted to puzzle a parson. “Now, the town beadle is bumptious, and Mrs. Avenel is gumptious.” “She is a very respectable woman,” said Mr. Dale, somewhat rebukingly. . “In course, sir; all gumptious folks are; they value themselves on their respectability, and looks down on their neighbours.” PARSON (still, philologically occupied):-Gumptious—gumptious. I think I remember the substantive at school—not that my master taught it to me. “Gumption,”—it means cleverness. LANDLORD (doggedly).-There's gumption and gumptious! Gumption is knowing; but when I say that sum un is gumptious, I meanthough that’s more vulgar like—sum un who does not think small beer of hisself   You take me, sir?”

   • 1859, Knightley William Horlock, The master of the hounds, by 'Scrutator', page 335:

     I tell you what it is, aunt, or mamma — which ever you choose to be called — that spoilt pet of yours has become so exceedingly gumptious since her promotion as Lady Beauchamp, that she rules the whole roost — will have her own way in everything

   • 1903, Quarterly Report of the Kansas State Board of Agriculture, page 12:

     A cow that will produce from sixty dollars' to eighty dollars' worth of butter-fat in the year does not need to raise a gumptious calf that would meet the needs of the beef man.

   • 1905, Michael Monahan, editor, The Papyrus, volume 5, number 1, pages 18–9:

     Goat Lymph means, in non-scientific terms, Extract of Goat. It is the active bezumistic principle of the happy hircus and is estimated to be at least 400 per cent, stronger than the gumption of the most gumptious human. No other animal equals the goat in point of what scientists call "ambish."

   • 1933, Briton Hadden, editor, Time, volume 21, National Affairs, page 14:

     BOARDS & BUREAUS / Gumptious Governor / First step in President Roosevelt's inflation program calls for the Federal Reserve System to enter the open market and buy up to $3,000,000,000 worth of U. S. securities.

   • 1962, The Nation's Schools, volume 70, page 77:

     "Hear ye! Hear ye! We will now continue the conviction of the textbookmamkers." shouted the Walrus, acting as judge; "we indict the textbooks for being too gumptious, too subversive, too easy, and too difficult. Besides," he added, "they are probably anti-Wonderland."

   • 2001, Jonathan Rowson, The Seven Deadly Chess Sins, page 92:

     Unlike flow, we can feel relative levels of gumption, and when we feel full of it, we can say we are 'gumptious'. In any case, it is my conviction that we need gumption for our spirits every bit as much as we need water for our bodies and neurons for our brains.

   • 2014, Anand Giridharadas, The True American: Murder and Mercy in Texas:

     Broadly, though, the lawsuit advanced three claims in support of its plea that Stroman not be executed the following week. The first was the most conventional, and where a less gumptious plaintiff might have ended.

   • 2019 September 8, Julie Miller, “Beanie Feldstein Didn't Know She Was Brave Until She Made How to Build a Girl”, in Vanity Fair:

     Though Feldstein grew up worshipping Barbra Streisand’s gumptious Funny Girl protagonist, Fanny Brice, the actor had never seen a female film character as fiercely herself as Johanna.

See also

• gump