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Moxie

//ˈmɒksi// noun, slang

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Nerve, spunk, strength of character. US, informal, uncountable

    "“Most definitely not!” replied Ms. Summers, who quickly added that she admired the woman’s moxie and, anyway, the day was hot."

  2. 2
    fortitude and determination wordnet
  3. 3
    Verve. US, informal, uncountable

    "As a girl she had speed and a knock-kneed moxie at athletics, and might have done more with it if she hadn't harvested all the glory already."

  4. 4
    Wit, smarts, skill. US, informal, uncountable

Etymology

First recorded use in 1930. From the name of an American soft drink Moxie made since 1885 to which advertisement ascribed many beneficial properties directly but also indirectly by using the same name as a patent medicine first manufactured in 1878. The word appears in very many place names in Maine, especially of falls and ponds, as well as the local name of a plant, the moxie-plum, and is perhaps ultimately from an Abenaki word meaning 'dark water' or an Algonquian root maski- meaning 'herbal infusion'.

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