a. [A humorous formation, suggested perh. by BUMP sb.1 or v.1, and words in -tious, like fractious. (Not in Craig 1847, nor in any earlier Dict.)] Offensively self-conceited; self-assertive. (colloq. and undignified.)
1803. Mad. D’Arblay, Diary & Lett., VI. 324. No my dearest Padre, bumptious! no I deny the charge in toto.
1821. Clare, Vill. Minstr., I. 36. The bumptious serjeant struts before his men … And look as big as if King George himsen.
1847–78. Halliwell, Bumptious, proud, arrogant. Var. dial.
1857. C. Maxwell, Lett., in Life, x. (1882), 295. Buckle’s History of Civilisation—a bumptious book, strong positivism, emancipation from exploded notions, and that style of thing.
Hence Bumptiously adv., Bumptiousness.
1856. Trewman’s Exeter Flying Post, 14 Aug., 4/5. The old tar talked most bumptiously about leaving his card at Cronstadt.
1871. M. Collins, Mrq. & Merch., I. i. 17. That long-legged isosceles triangle that bumptiously bestrides the asses’ bridge.
1843. Welshman, 8 Sept., 2/6. The butlers-pantry bumptiousness which the John Jones of the Morning Herald so gracefully and scrupulously substitutes for facts.
1857. Hughes, Tom Brown, I. v. Tom, notwithstanding his bumptiousness, felt friends with him at once.
1881. R. Pigott, in Macm. Mag., XLV. 169/2. The bumptiousness of minor British officialism.
