pushy

Etymology

It is formed from English push + -y,^[2][3][4][5] from the noun in its sense of a determined effort to get on;^[4][2] the Shorter Oxford takes it from the noun or the verb.^[6] The OED compares pushful and the earlier pushing.^[2] The base verb is from Old French poulser, modern pousser, from Latin pulsō (“to beat, strike, push”), the frequentative of pellō (“to push, drive, beat”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Excessively or unpleasantly forward or self-assertive: 1874, in the Indiana (Pennsylvania) Messenger.^[2][3] Etymonline dates it to 1894 of people, after an 1891 use of a cow.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The 1989 edition of the OED and Merriam-Webster's Collegiate dated the word to 1936,^[7][8] Dalzell records it as American from 1936,^[9] and Dictionary.com calls it an Americanism of 1935–40;^[5] the revised OED and Merriam-Webster Unabridged found it in 1874.^[2][3] The Shorter Oxford labels it colloquial and dates it to the mid 20th century,^[6] and Collins labels it informal, adding the sense of being aggressively or ruthlessly ambitious.^[10] Merriam-Webster Unabridged also records a chiefly dialectal sense, "unpleasantly eager or anxious".^[3]

Timeline

• 1874 – unpleasantly forward or self-assertive.^[2][3] Etymonline dates this use of people to 1894.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Unpleasantly forward or assertive in getting what one wants: The pushy salesman would not take no for an answer.^{[11][10][3][2]}
2. Aggressively or ruthlessly ambitious.^[10]
3. (chiefly dialect) Unpleasantly eager or anxious.^[3]

Word family

• pushily
• pushiness

Related words

• push
• pushful
• pushing
• pulse
• repel

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2013), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2nd ed., London: Routledge
10. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin