Fashionable Words: moxie

[Sometimes words die out of fashion. But sometimes those words are good words, words with a certain appeal that can't be denied forever. Those words should be brought back into fashion, used frequently and used often. These are those words.]

Word:
Moxie.

Definition:
noun
1. verve, vigor, pep.
2. courage and aggressiveness; nerve
3. skill; know-how




Origin:
An Americanism, it derives from the soda Moxie, which was among the most popular sodas in the early 20th century. Originally a patent medicine in the 1800s called "Moxie Nerve Food," the soda evolved into a bitter-tasting contrast to alternatives like Coca-Cola, and found huge national success. Poor business decisions (cut back on advertising, build up sugar reserves) in the 1930s led to a steep decrease in popularity. Today, Moxie is largely only known regionally in New England, drunk by elderly men and the stray graduate student blogger.

Used in a sentence:
1. With moxie and a little swagger, Johnny entered the karate tournament with only a black belt in kicking ass.

2. While everyone said he was an idiot for slapping the grizzly bear across the face, Bob chose to think of it as having moxie.

How Coke doesn't translate as well into an Americanism:
1. With Coke and a little swagger, Johnny entered the karate tournament with only a black belt in kicking ass.
[Here we see that Johnny potentially has a drug problem.]

2. While everyone said he was an idiot for slapping the grizzly bear across the face, Bob chose to think of it as having Coke.
[Again, the sentence turns into Bob's drug-fueled mania. Still charming, I admit, but now with a dark underbelly.]

Word Awesomeness Scale (1 to 5):
Five. It takes moxie to use moxie in a sentence.