Gumption

Wit to turn things to account, capacity. In Yorkshire we hear the phrase, “I canna gaum it” (understand it, make it out), and gaumtion is the capacity of understanding, etc. (Irish, gomsh, sense, cuteness.)

“Though his eyes were dazzled with the splendour of the place, faith he had gomsh enough not to let go his hold.”—Dublin and London Magazine, 1825 (Loughleagh).

Gumption. A nostrum much in request by painters in search of the supposed “lost medium” of the old masters, and to which their unapproachable excellence is ascribed. The medium is made of gum mastic and linseed-oil.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.