Courage, determination, and energy to do something difficult or ambitious.
Originally from a trademarked soft drink called Moxie (1884), whose name may derive from Moxie, Maine or from a Native American word meaning 'dark spirit.' The drink's marketing emphasized vigor and energy, so the word came to mean courage and nerve.
During the Roaring Twenties, 'moxie' became slang for courage right alongside the fizzy drink's massive popularity—language often borrows from brand names that capture a cultural moment perfectly. It's one of the few trademarked words that escaped into everyday speech so completely we forget it started as advertising.
Moxie emerged in early 20th-century American slang celebrating tough, determined individuals; it was coded as masculine-coded grit but equally celebrated in women who defied convention, especially in labor and suffrage movements.
Use freely across genders; recognize its history in amplifying underdog and working-class voices, particularly women's.
Suffragettes, union organizers, and civil rights activists—disproportionately women of color—embodied moxie; reclaiming the term honors their defiance.
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