different between gimp vs imp

English

Etymology 1

Attested since about 1660, perhaps from Dutch gimp or French guimpe, and likely from Old French guimpre, a variant of guipure, a kind of trimming.

The regional sense of "gumption" is attested since about 1905, and may have developed due to the reinforced nature of gimp cord, or possibly the influence of the words gumption and gumph.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??mp/
• Rhymes: -?mp

Noun

gimp (countable and uncountable, plural gimps)

1. A narrow ornamental fabric or braid of silk, wool, or cotton, often stiffened with metallic wire or coarse cord running through it, used as trimming for dresses, curtains, furniture, etc. Also guimpe.
2. Any coarse or reinforced thread, such as a glazed thread employed in lacemaking to outline designs, or silk thread used as a fishing leader, protected from the bite of fish by a wrapping of fine wire.
   • 1936, Djuna Barnes, Nightwood, Faber & Faber 2007, p. 87:

     I'm a fisher of men and my gimp is doing a saltarello over every body of water to fetch up what it may.

3. The plastic cord used in the plaiting and knotting craft Scoubidou (lanyard making); or, the process itself.
4. (dated, chiefly North Eastern US) Gumption

   Synonyms: spirit, ambition, vigor, pep

Related terms

• guimpe

Translations

Verb

gimp (third-person singular simple present gimps, present participle gimping, simple past and past participle gimped)

1. (of yarn, cord, thread, etc.) To wrap or wind (surround) with another length of yarn or wire in a tight spiral, often by means of a gimping machine, creating 'gimped yarn', etc. Also, generally, to wrap or twist with string or wire. See gimped.
   • 1856, Campbell Morfit, A Treatise on Chemistry Applied to the Manufacture of Soap and Candles, page 435 with illustration

     It consists of seventy fine spun cotton threads, gimped or tied around with thread by a machine similar to that for wrapping bonnet wire.
2. (dated) To notch or indent; to jag or make jagged; to edge with serrations or grooves.

Etymology 2

Attested in US slang since the 1920s. Maybe influenced by, or cognate with limp.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??mp/
• Rhymes: -?mp

Noun

gimp (plural gimps)

1. (informal) A person who is lame due to a crippling of the legs or feet.

   Synonyms: cripple, disabled (person)

2. (informal) A crippled leg.
3. (informal) A limp or a limping gait.
4. (slang, derogatory) A name-calling word, generally for a person who is perceived to be inept, deficient or peculiar

   Synonyms: dweeb, nerd, geek, gump, spod, dork

5. (BDSM) A sexual submissive, almost always male, dressed generally in a black leather suit. See Gimp (sadomasochism) in Wikipedia.
6. (video games, slang, derogatory) A character or ability that is underpowered.

Related terms

• gimp suit
• gimpy

Translations

Verb

gimp (third-person singular simple present gimps, present participle gimping, simple past and past participle gimped)

1. (intransitive, informal) To limp; to hobble.
2. (transitive, video games, slang) To make underpowered; to limit or restrict the useful effects of.

   Synonym: nerf

Etymology 3

Scots. Alternate form of jimp. Compare Welsh gwymp (“fair, neat, comely”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d??mp/
• Rhymes: -?mp

Adjective

gimp (comparative more gimp, superlative most gimp)

1. (dated, Scotland and N England) Neat; trim; delicate; slender; handsome; spruce; elegant.

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:gimp.

References

• 1846, John T. Brockett, A Glossary of North Country Words, page 190

Anagrams

• pIgM

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /?mp/
• Rhymes: -?mp

Etymology 1

From Middle English impen, ympen (“to plant; (figuratively) to bury; to graft; to add to, insert, put into, set in; to mend (a falcon’s feather) by attaching a new feather on to the broken stump”), from Old English impian, ?eimpian (“to graft”), from Proto-West Germanic *imp?n (“to graft”), from Vulgar Latin *imput? (“to graft”), from Ancient Greek ??????? (émphutos, “implanted; planted”), from ?????? (emphú?, “to implant”) (from ??- (en-, prefix meaning ‘in’) + ???? (phú?, “to bring forth, produce; to grow”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *b?uH- (“to appear; to become; to grow”))) + -??? (-tos).

Verb

imp (third-person singular simple present imps, present participle imping, simple past and past participle imped) (transitive)

1. (obsolete) To engraft or plant (a plant or part of one, a sapling, etc.).
2. (figuratively, archaic) To graft or implant (something other than a plant); to fix or set (something) in.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.9:

     That headlesse tyrants tronke he reard from ground, / And, having ympt the head to it agayne, / Upon his usuall beast it firmely bound, / And made it so to ride as it alive was found.

3. (falconry)
   1. To engraft (a feather) on to a broken feather in a bird's wing or tail to repair it; to engraft (feathers) on to a bird's wing or tail.
   2. To engraft (a bird, or bird's wing or tail) with feathers.
   3. (figuratively) To provide (someone or something) with wings, hence enabling them or it to soar.
      • 1633, George Herbert, "Easter Wings"

        With thee / Let me combine, / And feel this day thy victory / For, if I imp my wing on thine, / Affliction shall advance the flight in me.

4. (by extension) To add to or unite with (something) another object to lengthen it out or repair it; to eke out, enlarge, strengthen.

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English impe, ympe (“tree branch; shoot, sprig; graft, scion; young tree, sapling, seedling; tree”) [and other forms], from Old English impa, impe (“shoot, sprig; graft, scion; young tree, sapling, seedling”), from impian, ?eimpian (“to graft”) (see etymology 1).

Noun

imp (plural imps)

1. (chiefly fiction and mythology) A small, mischievous sprite or a malevolent supernatural creature, somewhat comparable to a demon but smaller and less powerful, formerly regarded as the child of the devil or a demon (see sense 3.2). [from 16th c.]
   • 1771, James Beattie, The Minstrel:

     Nor cared to mingle in the clamorous fray / Of squabbling imps […]
2. (by extension)
   1. (often humorous) A mischievous child. [from 17th c.]

      Synonyms: brat, little dickens, scamp, urchin

      • 1908, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

        I've left my young children to look after themselves, and a more mischievous and troublesome set of young imps doesn't exist...

   2. A baby Tasmanian devil.
3. (obsolete)
   1. A young shoot of a plant, a tree, etc.; a sapling; also, a part of a plant used for grafting; a graft. [9th–18th c.]
      • 14th c., Sir Orfeo, 69:

        Þai sett hem doun al þre / Vnder a fair ympe-tre.

      • 1571, Arthur Golding, The Psalmes of David and others. With M. John Calvins Commentaries, “Epistle Dedicatorie,”^[1]

        Out of these rootes spring other impes, no lesse perniciouse than the stockes of whiche they come […]

   2. An offspring or scion, especially of a noble family; (generally) a (usually male) child; a (young) man. [15th–19th c.]
      • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene I.3:

        And thou most dreaded impe of highest Ioue, / Faire Venus sonne, [...] come to mine ayde [...].

      • The tender imp was weaned from the teat.

   3. (Britain, dialectal) Something added to or united with another to lengthen it out or repair it (such as an eke or small stand on which a beehive is placed, or a length of twisted hair in a fishing line).

Derived terms

• impish
• impishly
• implike
• impishness

Translations

References

Further reading

• imp on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• IPM, MIP, MPI, PIM, PMI