bumptious

American  

[buhmp-shuhs] / ˈbʌmp ʃəs /

adjective

1. offensively self-assertive.

   a bumptious young upstart.

   Synonyms:

   brash, cheeky, cocky, forward, pushy

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bumptious British  

/ ˈbʌmpʃəs /

adjective

1. offensively self-assertive or conceited

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Usage

Where does bumptious come from? For as fun as the word bumptious sounds, its meaning is more forceful. Bumptious is recorded in the late 1790s and is a blend of bump and fractious, meaning “unruly” or “irritable.” Bumptious bumps fractious up to the next level, meaning “offensively self-assertive.”Many more amusing Americanisms await in our slideshow "These Wacky Words Originated In The USA."

Other Word Forms

• bumptiously adverb
• bumptiousness noun
• overbumptious adjective
• overbumptiously adverb
• overbumptiousness noun
• unbumptious adjective
• unbumptiously adverb
• unbumptiousness noun

Etymology

Origin of bumptious

First recorded in 1795–1805; bump + (frac)tious

Explanation

Someone bumptious is cocky, aggressive, and loud. Bumptious people jump ahead of everyone in line at the ice cream truck and steal subway seats from pregnant women. It's good to speak your mind and stand up for yourself, but it's not good to be bumptious. When you're bumptious, you're obnoxious. Someone who dominates a conversation without listening to others is bumptious. Someone who takes more than their fair share of something is bumptious. To be bumptious is to be selfish and annoying. Bumptious people are often arrogant and usually thoughtless, and bumptious behavior shows no concern for other people.

Example Sentences

It's unrecognisable from the bumptious singalong it became - the words Yellow and Submarine are conspicuously absent - but Martin says the development of the song shows the Beatles at their most harmonious.

From BBC • Oct. 21, 2022

Gould and his bumptious crony Jim Fisk fought back by buying cows in Chicago and, in Steinmetz’s words, “shipping them to market at Vanderbilt’s bargain rates.”

From Washington Post • Sep. 16, 2022

Soviet GM Mark Taimanov, Fischer’s first victim, was both outclassed and under debilitating pressure from officials back home to stop the bumptious American.

From Washington Times • May 10, 2022

But the most thrilling cameos on “Certified Lover Boy” come from two veterans, Rick Ross and Lil Wayne, who tear through their verses in the bumptious “You Only Live Twice” with refreshed vigor and attitude.

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 6, 2021

“And what do you know? You are too young: you smell of your mother’s milk. You have the bumptious, graceless confidence of the recently born.”

From "Impossible Creatures" by Katherine Rundell