Etymology

gumption

gump·tion
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Today it means: Common sense, initiative, resourcefulness. Full definition →

First used early 18th c.Scots gumption ← Proto-Germanic *gaumō
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The story

  1. Proto-Germanic · derived from*gaumō
  2. Scots · borrowed fromgumption“common sense, shrewdness; drive, initiative”
  3. English todaygumption

Borrowed from Scots gumption (“common sense, shrewdness; drive, initiative”); further etymology unknown, possibly connected with Middle English gome (“attention, heed”), from Old Norse gaumr (“attention, heed”), from Proto-Germanic *gaumō. English cognates include gaum (“to comprehend, understand”) and goam (“to recognize, see”).

Words from the same roots

Proto-Germanic*gaumō all →

gumgormgaum

First known use, by meaning

  • from early 18th c. Common sense, initiative, resourcefulness.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.