bumptious

adjective

bump·​tious ˈbəm(p)-shəs 

: presumptuously, obtusely, and often noisily self-assertive : obtrusive

bumptiously adverb

bumptiousness noun

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How Should You Use bumptious?

While we've uncovered evidence dating bumptious to the beginning of the 19th century, the word was uncommon enough decades later that Edward Bulwer-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 and the -tious of fractious.

Synonyms

• arrogant
• assumptive
• cavalier
• chesty
• haughty
• high-and-mighty
• high-handed
• high-hat
• highfalutin
• hifalutin
• huffish
• huffy
• imperious
• important
• lofty
• lordly
• masterful
• overweening
• peremptory
• pompous
• presuming
• presumptuous
• pretentious
• self-asserting
• self-assertive
• sniffy
• stiff-necked
• supercilious
• superior
• toplofty
• toploftical
• uppish
• uppity

Examples of bumptious in a Sentence

a bumptious young man whose family wealth gave him a sense of entitlement

Recent Examples on the Web

Despite lines that are initially chatty and chirpy, Corden shows how bumptious his character really is. —David Benedict, Variety, 26 June 2024

Although not always directly correlated with being bumptious and arrogant, performing at a higher standard than others, and having something to show for it, will always garner attention. —Clare French, Hartford Courant, 16 Mar. 2024

Which is not to imply that the six-year-old, with quite a bumptious career behind him, is of Secretariat's muster. —Guy Martin, Forbes, 30 Mar. 2024

The story is a familiar one — a young immigrant fetches up in New York to seek his fortune, only to be buffeted by a bumptious city and cut to the quick by its competitive edge — but Torres reshapes it into something simultaneously more fantastical and far more real. —Ann Hornaday, Washington Post, 13 Mar. 2024

Word History

Etymology

bump entry 1 + -tious (as in fractious)

First Known Use

1801, in the meaning defined above

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