A simpleton. Probably of Scottish origin.
1825. Sort of a naiteral too, I guess; rather a gump, hey?John Neal, Brother Jonathan, ii. 42. (N.E.D.)
1846.
Tell ye jest the eend I ve come to | |
Arter cipherin plaguy smart, | |
An it makes a handy sum, tu, | |
Any gump could larn by heart. | |
Lowell, Biglow Papers, No. 1. |
1851. I wouldnt be a gump, ef I was you.J. J. Hooper, Adventures of Captain Simon Suggs, &c., p. 179.
1856. He s the consarndest old gump tew t ever wasno intellectibility at all.Whitcher, The Widow Bedott Papers, No. 9.
1858. Then I, like a gump, would choke up more, and carry my heart in my mouth for the next hour, wholly unable to speak a word!Knick. Mag., li. 371 (April).