scrumptious

English

WOTD – 16 July 2023

Etymology

Probably from scrimp (“to put on short allowance, limit, straiten; to be frugal”) +‎ -ious (suffix forming adjectives denoting the presence of a quality in any degree (usually an abundance)), possibly modelled after scrimption (“small portion, little bit, scrap”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈskɹʌm(p)ʃəs/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: scrump‧tious

Adjective

scrumptious (comparative more scrumptious, superlative most scrumptious) (originally US, informal)

1. Of food: delectable, delicious.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:delicious

   Antonym: unscrumptious

   What a scrumptious treat!

2. Of a person or thing: excellent, wonderful; also, very aesthetically pleasing or attractive; good enough to eat.
   • 1865, George Meredith, “The Melting of the Thousand”, in Rhoda Fleming. […], volume II, London: Tinsley Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 262:

     […] I came here to have a wink at the fash'nables—hang me, if ever I see such a scrumptious lot.

   • 1989 March 6, The Sydney Morning Herald, page 8S, column 1:

     Barbara Cartland scratched out this trusty 19th-century romancer concerning the scrumptious Serena Staverly (Diana Rigg), who has the dreadful misfortune to be lost in a game of cards to the flint-hearted Lord Justin.

3. (obsolete, rare)
   1. Fastidious, picky.
   2. Very small; tiny.

Derived terms

• plumptious
• scrumdiddlyumptious
• scrummy
• scrumptiously
• scrumptiousness
• scrumtrulescent (possibly)
• unscrumptious
• yumptious

 

Translations

of food: delectable, delicious — see also delectable,‎ delicious

• Dutch: lekker (nl)
• Finnish: herkullinen (fi)
• French: délicieux (fr), succulent (fr)
• German: delikat (de), lecker (de)
• Hungarian: finom (hu), ízletes (hu)
• Macedonian: пре́красен (prékrasen), вку́сен (vkúsen)
• Maori: hāhā, kakato, makue, whakawaiwai
• Navajo: ayóó áhálniih
• Persian: خوش‌مزه (fa) (xoš-maze)
• Plautdietsch: scheenschmakjent
• Romanian: delicios (ro), gustos (ro)
• Russian: изы́сканный (ru) m (izýskannyj), великоле́пный (ru) m (velikolépnyj), восхити́тельный (ru) m (vosxitítelʹnyj)
• Swedish: delikat (sv), läcker (sv), utsökt (sv), smarrig (sv), smaskens (sv), mumsig (sv)

of a person or thing: excellent, wonderful — see excellent,‎ wonderful

very aesthetically pleasing or attractive — see attractive

Further reading

• [John Camden Hotten] (1859) “SCRUMPTIOUS”, in A Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words, […], London: John Camden Hotten, […], →OCLC, page 88: “nice, particular, beautiful. Suffolk, scrumshus, stingy.”
• Joseph Wright, editor (1905), “SCRUMPTIOUS, adj.”, in The English Dialect Dictionary: […], volumes V (R–S), London: Henry Frowde, […], publisher to the English Dialect Society, […]; New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, →OCLC, page 292, column 1: “mean, stingy, close-fisted.”