go-getter colloq. (orig. U.S.).
(ˈgəʊˌgɛtə(r))
[f. to go get (see go v. 32 a) + -er1.]
An active, enterprising, pushing person. Also attrib.
| 1921 S. Ford Inez & Trilby May xii. 216 Think you're one of these go-getters, do you? 1922 P. B. Kyne (title) The Go-Getter. A story that tells you how to be one. 1926 F. Swinnerton Summer Storm v. i. 197 The go-getter despises the non-go-getter; but never as much as the non-go-getter despises the go-getter. 1928, 1929 [see go v. 32 a]. 1932 J. Cary Aissa Saved 159 MacEwen did not write in the vein of a go-getter business expert seeking out inefficiency. 1959 M. Cumberland Murmurs in Rue Morgue vii. 48 He was a go-getter, an arriviste,..a bull charging at competitive life. |
So ˈgo-ˌgetting ppl. a., enterprising, pushing; also as n., the behaviour of a go-getter; enterprise, ambition. Hence go-ˈgettingness.
| 1921 J. G. Frederick Great Game of Business p. v, The true forward-looking ‘go-getting’ American business point of view. 1924 R. Cummins Sky-High Corral 25 He was one of them flyin' son-of-a-guns an' they say he was a go-gettin' fool. 1928 Daily Express 27 June 10/7 Such jobs generally call for..a ‘go-getting’ attitude to life that the public school boy does not possess. Ibid. 5 July 13/7 All of which has somewhat shattered my faith in the ‘pep’ and ‘go-gettingness’ of the American reporters. 1931 F. F. Bond Mr. Miller 170 The students herded to hear breezy young instructors exhale the new gospel of ‘go-getting’. 1946 R. Knox Epistles & Gospels 97 There are some critics who maintain that when St Paul uses this particular word (it is really ‘go-getting’ rather than ‘covetousness’), he is thinking of the ninth commandment, not of the tenth. 1959 Punch 21 Oct. 340/2 My future as a go-getting reporter was bleak indeed. |