moxie

moxie \MOK-see\, noun:

1. Vigor; verve; pep.
2. Courage and aggressiveness.
3. Skill; know-how.

I'm just wondering what it's like to be a young, attractive, female FBI agent who's smarter and got more moxie than most of the men around her.
-- Barry Eisler, Inside Out
"You've got moxie, dear," she said to Delores in a thin voice.
-- Betsy Carter, Swim To Me
Moxie enters common speech from the 1908 Moxie, a trademark name registered 1924 for a bitter non-alcoholic beverage; it was used as far back as 1876 as the name of a patent medicine advertised to "build up your nerve," and it is perhaps ultimately from a New England tribal word.