sumpsimus means adherence to or persistence in using a strictly correct term in rejection of a more common (but technically incorrect) form. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
Why “sumpsimus” is a great word
SUMPSIMUS — [Noun] Adherence to, or a person characterized by, the stubborn insistence on using a correct term in place of a popular but erroneous alternative. From Latin sumpsimus ("we have taken"), the correct form in the Eucharistic formula, contrasted with the erroneous 'mumpsimus'; entering English c. 1540–50. Unlike a *mumpsimus* (the error itself, clung to out of habit) or a *pedant* (a general overseer of minor rules), a *sumpsimus* is a partisan for a lost, linguistic truth. It is the scholar’s quiet correction in a roomful of colloquial ease, the preserved manuscript that contradicts the popular edition, the precise weight of a single, right word in a world sliding toward comfortable error—a fidelity that is both a preservation of meaning and a quiet acknowledgment of how easily language slips away.
noun
- Adherence to or persistence in using a strictly correct term in rejection of a more common (but technically incorrect) form.“I'll not change my old mumpsimus for your new sumpsimus!”
- A person obstinate or zealous about such correctness; a pedant.