Sunday, February 10, 2008

Althouse: NBC wimped out over "pimped out."

"pimp

1607, perhaps from M.Fr. pimper 'to dress elegantly' (16c.), prp. of pimpant 'alluring in dress, seductive.' Weekley suggests M.Fr. pimpreneau, defined in Cotgrave (1611) as 'a knave, rascall, varlet, scoundrell.' The word also means 'informer, stool pigeon' in Australia and New Zealand and in S.Africa, where by early 1960s it existed in Swahili form impimpsi. The verb is attested from 1636. Pimpmobile first recorded 1973."

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