moxie (US English)
noun

- confidence and determination

- energy, pep, courage, determination

The Cambridge Dictionary / Merriam-Webster

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WORD ORIGIN

“Hot roasted peanuts! Fresh popcorn! Ice-cold Moxie!” You might have heard such a snack vendor’s cry at a baseball game if you attended it in 1924. That was the heyday of the soft drink named “Moxie”, which some claim outsold Coca-Cola at the height of its popularity.

The drink was a favourite of American writer E. B. White, who wrote, “Moxie contains gentian root, which is the path to the good life.”

By 1930, “moxie” had become a slang term for courage and energy, perhaps because some people thought the drink was a tonic that could cure virtually any ill and bring power back to even the most lethargic individual. Today we have Red Bull.

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SYNONYMS

- steadiness and courage in a demanding situation

ability to bounce back, adventurousness, aplomb, ardour, assiduousness, assurance, assuredness, audacity, backbone, balls, battle, “blood, sweat and tears”, boldness, bolshiness, bouncebackability, brass balls, brassiness, bravado, bravery, bravura, brio, bulldog spirit, calibre, can-do attitude, certitude, chops, chutzpah, cockiness, cocksureness, cojones, combativeness, daredevilry, daring, dauntlessness, defiance, derring-do, determination, doggedness, doughtiness, drive, Dunkirk spirit, dynamism, eagerness, élan, esprit, faith in oneself, fearlessness, fervour, fibre, fight, fire (in the belly), firmness of purpose, forcefulness, front, gameness, get-up-and-go, go, grit, grittiness, gumph, gumption, gusto, guts, implacability, indefatigability, indomitability, inexorability, inner strength, intestinal fortitude, intrepidity, iron will, juice, legs, lionheartedness, mettle, MOXIE, nerve, old college try, panache, passion, pecker, pep, persistence, pluck, pluckiness, potency, power (of endurance, to resist), pugnacity, pull, punch, purposefulness, pzazz, relentlessness, resoluteness, resolution, resolve, right stuff, salt, self-assurance (-confidence), sense of purpose, single-mindedness, spirit, spiritedness, staying power, steel, sticktoitiveness, strength of purpose, stuff, temerity, tenaciousness, tenacity, toughness (of spirit), vim, welly, what it takes, will to win, wind in one’s sails, yakka, zap, zeal, zest, zing, zip

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SMUGGLE OWAD into an English conversation, say something like:

“She had the MOXIE to stand up to her cantankerous boss and demand a salary raise.”

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