GUMPTION

[Dr. Goodword]

• gumption •

Pronunciation: gêmp-shên • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun, mass (no plural)

Meaning: (Regional) Self-confident willpower, backbone with smartness. This word is a Southern US regionalism for chutzpah, moxie, brashness, or just plain pluck.

Notes: We recently ran a New England word for "gumption", moxie, and thought it only fair to the South to discuss the Southern word for the same human character trait. Today's word comes in a trio with rumgumption and rumblegumption, variants always available should you need more than two syllables to express the same sentiment. This fake Latin noun is accompanied by an equally fake Latin adjective, gumptious, which describes those with gumption.

In Play: As we mentioned in our discussion of moxie, gumption is what they call the same (right) stuff down South: "Porter just didn't have the gumption to ask Maybelline out to the barn dance this weekend." "Well, Porter told me that when he looks into Maybelline's eyes, all his gumption just evaporates into thin air."

Word History: Today's Good Word is one of those mysterious terms the Scots brought over to the US, where it settled in the Southern states. Where the Scots got the word is a mystery. Its original meaning was "common sense" but that slipped a bit in the US to the first meaning above. It is not a reduction of rumgumption or rumblegumption, since these words seem to have entered the language about a half century after gumption. Moreover, rumgumption is made up of the (again, Scottish) adjective rum "good, excellent" + gumption. The original word, whatever it was, clearly has been hammered into the shape of a fake Latin word, with the suffix -tion. Who did that and when are simply unknown.

[sluggo]

I grew up in the North but to this day have never heard moxie except in old movies. Did hear gumption though, all my life.

[Jeff hook]

More than a generation ago during my boyhood in the NYC-influenced part of NJ I often heard older adults use "moxie." They used this word with the same irony and whimsy which they used with Yiddish expressions, and I always assumed "moxie" was Yiddish. I was surprised to learn its true origin. (I also appreciate Dr. Beard's mention of a possible connection to Algonquian.)

I don't want to derail this "gumption" thread by focusing attention here on the subject of another current thread, but I think it might be interesting to learn how "moxie" came to be in broad use here in the NYC area less than 100 years after it was introduced as the name of a consumer product in Maine.

You mentioned old movies and I wonder if they helped to spread knowledge of this word. Based on what Dr. Beard told us it looks like "moxie" would have been new when those movies were made. I'm assuming this word seemed to be fun and "spunky" and "self-assertive" when it was first heard. We don't seem to use the letter "X" much. It seems like a bit of a stretch to speculate that there could be a sub-conscious association with "sex," in part because "moxie" seems so "perky" and "wholesome." However, that "X" does have a "kick." The "-ie" suffix suggests the nickname of a spirited girl. I wonder if carbonation of soft drinks was new when the soft drink was introduced and if this word seemed to express the drink's "fizziness," which may have been a surprising novelty, although we've all seen the "seltzer water" slapstick routines in older movies. They show that carbonation was known then.

I assume the marketing of the soft drink helped to give the word prominence. I don't know if the drink was actually marketed nationally but, if it was, I wonder if national advertising was new then, and if use of this "feisty" word may have spread because it gave people an enjoyable sense that they were participating in a fun fad, and that they were adopting a state of mind which was associated with this irreverent word. I'm wondering if such words might be "linguistic hula hoops." Could this unique word itself have caused a kind of "craze"?

I'm also thinking of the social contexts in which this soft drink was marketed: "The Roaring Twenties," and The Great Depression, in which "fizz" and "pluck" might have been particularly valued, respectively.

I wonder if single-word product names were new and surprising when this soft drink was introduced. Would it have been customary, in the past, for such a product to have been given a name like, "Augustin's Elixir," or "Thompson's Tonic"? This word itself even seems somehow to personify certain quailities of character which may have been popular when the softdrink was being marketed. I don't know much about the history of popular culture, but I'm thinking of Buster Keaton hanging from the hands of that giant clock high up on the facade of a "modern office buidling," and I'm thinking of "The Perils of Pauline."

Could this word have been an early example of the association of a product name with personality characteristics and with behavior? Marketers have practiced that technique so much since then that we expect it, but the tactic was once brand new and extremely effective.

Jeff Hook

[Bailey]

used this word with the same irony and whimsy which they used with Yiddish expressions,

Irony/Whimsy, yeah they are our favorite things around here.

mb

[Perry]

Indeed, we do have the gumption to be whimsical.

[sluggo]

...However, that "X" does have a "kick." The "-ie" suffix suggests the nickname of a spirited girl.

I asked Trixie the gun moll about this but she just gave me a blank stare and went on chewing gum.

moll- there's a worthy search

[Jeff hook]

Yeah, you could probably have asked "Roxie," who might be a "thug's consort," or "Kittie," proprietress of the "Flash in the Pan" saloon... Then there's always "Rosie the Riveter"... Hmmm...

I was thinking along different lines...

"Somebody, help me out with a few names ending in '-ie' for 'spunky, mischievous, spirited little girls,' will you?"

Jeff Hook (I could supply my own names if I were only a father...)

[sluggo]

-ie is a very common diminutive for females. That search will be quite subjective, methink.

I once had a girlfriend named Roxanne but her nickname was "Rocky".

[Stargzer]

... Today's word comes in a trio with rumgumption ... Moreover, rumgumption is made up of the (again, Scottish) adjective rum "good, excellent" + gumption. ...

Rumgumption sounds to me more like the kind of gumption (courage, spunk, guts, chutzpah, etc.) one might get after a serious toping of grog ...

... Word History:
Today's Good Word is one of those mysterious terms the Scots brought over to the US, where it settled in the Southern states. Where the Scots got the word is a mystery. ...

They appear to have gotten it from Old Norse by way of Middle English:

gumption
1719, Scottish, "common sense, shrewdness," also "drive, initiative," possibly connected with M.E. gome "attention, heed," from O.N. gaumr "heed." Originally "common sense, shrewdness," sense of "initiative" is first recorded 1812.