bumptious

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 7, 2025 is: bumptious \BUMP-shus\ adjective Bumptious describes people who are rudely and often noisily confident or over-assertive. It can also be applied to actions or behaviors that show this same attitude. // Our host apologized for the bumptious party guest who caused a scene before being asked to leave. [See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bumptious) Examples: "She comes across as a bumptious, irritating ten-year-old who believes that her main vice, her steam-roller self-confidence, is a virtue." — Lloyd Evans, The Spectator (London), 17 Aug. 2024 Did you know? While evidence dates bumptious to the beginning of the 19th century, the word was uncommon enough decades later that [Edward Bulwer-Lytton](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edward-George-Earle-Bulwer-Lytton-1st-Baron-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 suffix -tious, echoing other disapproving modifiers including [captious](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/captious) ("fault-finding") and [fractious](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fractious) ("troublemaking").