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Unknown origin
- The word pimp is of unknown origin. It first appeared in English around 1600 and was used then as now to mean “a person who arranges opportunities for sexual intercourse with a prostitute.” The figurative meaning, “a person who panders to an undesirable or immoral impulse,” was found by the middle of the 17 th century.
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Feb 11, 2008 · The word pimp is of unknown origin. It first appeared in English around 1600 and was used then as now to mean “a person who arranges opportunities for sexual intercourse with...
Dec 10, 2020 · Judging by such recorded meanings of pimp as 'helper in mines; servant in logging camps,' this word was originally applied to boys and servants. [Liberman] The word also means "informer, stool pigeon" in Australia and New Zealand and in South Africa, where by early 1960s it existed in Swahili form impimpsi.
Dec 9, 2013 · According to etymonline the original meaning(s) of the word were (emphasis mine): pimp (n.) c.1600, of unknown origin, perhaps from Middle French pimpant "alluring in dress, seductive," present participle of pimper "to dress elegantly" (16c.), from Old French pimpelorer, pipelorer "decorate, color, beautify."
The word pimp first appeared in English in 1607, in a Thomas Middleton play entitled Your Five Gallants. It is of unknown origin, but may have stemmed from the French infinitive pimper meaning to dress up elegantly and from the present participle pimpant meaning alluring in seductive dress.
The earliest known use of the noun pimp is in the early 1600s. OED's earliest evidence for pimp is from 1600, in the writing of Ben Jonson, poet and playwright. pimp is of unknown origin.
OED's earliest evidence for pimp is from 1639, in the writing of William Cartwright, poet, playwright, and Church of England clergyman. It is also recorded as a noun from the early 1600s. pimp is formed within English, by conversion.
Dec 3, 2000 · The origin of the word “pimp” is unknown, said Sheidlower, who disagrees with Webster’s etymology that attributes it to the French pimper, meaning to allure or to dress smartly.
