sticktuitiveness

[Benjamin Zimmer]

>From an AP report on the latest win by the New York Mets:

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http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/recap?gid=270722119&prov=ap
"It's an outstanding win on the road, a great gutsy win by the club,"
[Mets manager Willie] Randolph said. "This is the kind of game that
you might look back on at the end of the season and say this might
have been a big turning point for us. We showed that
'sticktuitiveness' that we need to be a real good team. It's going to
be a nice flight home."
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OED has "stick-to-it-ive-ness" back to 1867 but doesn't know the
"sticktuitiveness" spelling -- presumably influenced by
"intuitiveness". Google Books has (verifiable) cites back to 1914.

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1914 _Record of Christian Work_ XXXIII 213 The thing that the Editor
liked so much about this man was his 'sticktuitiveness.'
http://books.google.com/books?id=byT9ZfXSMhEC
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1914 Winifred Sackville Stoner _Natural Education_ 238 Once we read
the story of how oriental rugs are made thread by thread, so as to
show the child what patience, continuity or "sticktuitiveness," can
do.
http://books.google.com/books?id=GqkWAAAAIAAJ
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1920 Sinclair Lewis _Main Street_ 199 There's just three classes of
people: folks that haven't got any ideas at all; and cranks that kick
about everything; and Regular Guys, the fellows with
stick~tuitiveness, that boost and get the world's work done.
http://books.google.com/books?id=66VaLHf1LY4C
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--Ben Zimmer

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org