This ump-teen's fourth call...

I never thought about the word, and I was a little skeptical of Wiktionary’s etymology.

From ump (“colloquial name for the dash "—" in Morse code”) +‎ -teen.

Clipping of umpire

From a Middle English rebracketing of a noumpere as an oumpere, from Old French nonper (“odd number, not even (as a tie-breaking arbitrator)”), from non (“not”) + per (“equal”), from Latin par (“equal”). Doublet of nonpareil.

But etymonline has basically the same answer. The idea that it came directly from military slang regarding Morse code makes it more believable. Plus I’ve heard umpty used before as an arbitrarily large number, specifically as umpty odd [something].

umpteen

indefinite number, "many, a lot of," by 1907, popularized in World War I army slang, from umpty + -teen.

umpty

1905, "of an indefinite number," usually a large one, military slang; earlier it was Morse code slang for a dash; the form influenced by association with numerals such as twenty, thirty.

2 comments

Foe the umpteenth time, stop making ai generated memes. No one wants to see them
I never thought about the word, and I was a little skeptical of Wiktionary’s etymology.
umpteen
From ump (“colloquial name for the dash "—" in Morse code”) +‎ -teen.
ump
Clipping of umpire
umpire
From a Middle English rebracketing of a noumpere as an oumpere, from Old French nonper (“odd number, not even (as a tie-breaking arbitrator)”), from non (“not”) + per (“equal”), from Latin par (“equal”). Doublet of nonpareil.
But etymonline has basically the same answer. The idea that it came directly from military slang regarding Morse code makes it more believable. Plus I’ve heard umpty used before as an arbitrarily large number, specifically as umpty odd [something].
umpteen
indefinite number, "many, a lot of," by 1907, popularized in World War I army slang, from umpty + -teen.
umpty
1905, "of an indefinite number," usually a large one, military slang; earlier it was Morse code slang for a dash; the form influenced by association with numerals such as twenty, thirty.