[L., 1st pers. pl. perf. ind. of sūmĕre to take.] A correct expression taking the place of an incorrect but popular one (mumpsimus).
1545. Hen. VIII., Sp. Parl., 24 Dec., in Hall, Chron., Hen. VIII. (1548), 261 b. Some be to stiffe in their old Mumpsimus, other be to busy and curious, in their newe Sumpsimus.
1621. Bp. Mountagu, Diatribæ, 115. Some very few, too much giuen vp vnto their old Mumpsimus, which they would not leaue for the new Sumpsimus.
1653. Z. Bogan, Mirth Chr. Life, 124. One that hath been long in another way … will not easily be brought to change his old mumsimus (as they say) for a new sumpsimus.
1818. Bentham, Ch. Eng., Introd. 34. The insufficiency and inaptitude of the old mumpsimus, on the back of which they thus clap this their new sumpsimus.
1828. Scott, Aunt Margaret’s Mirr. (ad init.). The clergyman, who, without vindicating his false reading, preferred, from habit’s sake, his old mumpsimus to the modern sumpsimus.
1882. F. W. Farrar, in Contemp. Rev., March, 372. Did they want a correct sumpsimus, or their erroneous but pleasing mumpsimus?
