- Today's Word
Gumption
[GUMP-shun]
Definition
- (noun) A spirited initiative, resourcefulness, courage, and common sense. It describes a person’s ability to get things done with energy and determination, often in the face of difficulties or challenges.
Example
Despite facing numerous setbacks, the young entrepreneur showed real gumption by persevering and eventually turning her small start-up into a successful business.
Fun Fact
The word “gumption” is believed to have originated in Scotland in the early 1700s. Its exact etymology is uncertain, but some linguists suggest it might be related to the Middle English word “gome,” meaning “attention” or “heed.” The term gained popularity in American English during the 19th century, where it came to embody the spirit of self-reliance and initiative often associated with frontier life.
(adjective) Belonging to a different era and jarringly out of place in its current context.
The executive’s insistence on fax machines and printed memos felt deeply anachronistic in an office where everything else ran on AI.
Anachronistic derives from the Greek anachronismos, built from ana- (“against” or “back”) and chronos (“time”). It entered English in the 17th century, initially used by historians and literary critics to describe errors in which a person, object, or custom is placed in the wrong historical period — a clock appearing in a Shakespeare play set in ancient Rome, for instance. Over time it broadened into everyday use to describe anything that feels like a relic of a time that has long since passed.