bumptious

<font size="-1" face="arial, helvetica"> <p> <strong> <font color="#000066">Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 8, 2021 is:</font> </strong> </p> <p> <strong>bumptious</strong> &#149; \BUMP-shus\&nbsp; &#149; <em>adjective</em><br /> <p><strong>:</strong> presumptuously, obtusely, and often noisily self-assertive <strong>:</strong> <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/obtrusive">obtrusive</a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Examples:</strong><br /> <p>"The brash, <em>bumptious</em> New Yorkers I'd encountered in college had assured me that everything in New York was 'the best.'" — <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/19/dining/jewish-rye-bread-gottliebs-savannah.html">Herbert Buchsbaum, <em>The New York Times</em>, 19 Jan. 2021</a></p> <p>"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 <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/marque#h2">marque's</a> distinctly American blend of <em>bumptious</em> brazenness, brassy luxury, and go-anywhere capability." — <a href="https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/cadillacs-new-2021-escalade-features-high-tech-firsts">Brett Berk, <em>Architectural Digest</em>, 10 Feb. 2020</a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Did you know?</strong><br /> <p>While we've uncovered evidence dating <em>bumptious</em> to the beginning of the 19th century, the word was uncommon enough decades later that Edward Bulwer-Lytton included the following in his 1850 <em>My Novel</em>: "'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 dictiona