"tough, plucky," 1893, from guts + -y (2). Earlier it meant "greedy" (1803).
Entries linking to gutsy
guts n.
"spirit, courage," 1893, figurative plural of gut (n.). The idea of the bowels as the seat of the spirit goes back to at least mid-14c. (compare bowel).
-y 2
adjective suffix, "full of or characterized by," from Old English -ig, from Proto-Germanic *-iga- (source also of Dutch, Danish, German -ig, Gothic -egs), from PIE -(i)ko-, adjectival suffix, cognate with elements in Greek -ikos, Latin -icus (see -ic). Originally added to nouns in Old English; used from 13c. with verbs, and by 15c. even with other adjectives (for example crispy). Adjectives such as hugy, vasty are artificial words that exist for the sake of poetical metrics.