bumptious - a podcast by Merriam-Webster

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 8, 2021 is: bumptious \BUMP-shus\ adjective
: presumptuously, obtusely, and often noisily self-assertive : [obtrusive](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/obtrusive)

Examples:

"The brash, bumptious New Yorkers I'd encountered in college had assured me that everything in New York was 'the best.'" — [Herbert Buchsbaum, The New York Times, 19 Jan. 2021](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/19/dining/jewish-rye-bread-gottliebs-savannah.html)

"Since its introduction in the late 1990s, the Escalade has been the 118-year-old Detroit luxury brand’s flagship—its most expensive model, and the one that perhaps best represents the [marque's](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/marque#h2) distinctly American blend of bumptious brazenness, brassy luxury, and go-anywhere capability." — [Brett Berk, Architectural Digest, 10 Feb. 2020](https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/cadillacs-new-2021-escalade-features-high-tech-firsts)

Did you know?

While we've uncovered evidence dating bumptious to the beginning of the 19th century, the word was uncommon enough decades later that Edward Bulwer-Lytton included the following in his 1850 My Novel: "'She holds her head higher, I think,' said the landlord, smiling. 'She was always—not exactly proud like, but what I calls Bumptious.' '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.'" The word is, of course, now in "the dictionary"; ours notes that it comes from the noun [bump](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bump) and the -tious of [fractious](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fractious).

Further episodes of Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Further podcasts by Merriam-Webster

Website of Merriam-Webster