umpteen [E20th] Signals regiments in the army once used umpty to indicate the dash in Morse code (the dot was iddy). One slang dictionary states that this began in India, as a way of teaching the Morse system to Indian troops. The military term may be behind the use of umpty for an indefinite large number, recorded from the late 19th century and developing into umpteen, on the model of thirteen or fourteen, in the early 1900s.