# Usage of "Gimp" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 4, 2006, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-gimp/371377 "2006-09-04T06:06:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![draino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/53a042/32.png) [@draino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/draino)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2006, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-gimp/371377/1 "2006-09-04T06:06:22Z")
Some people I know seem to think that the usage of the word “gimp” to refer to a sexual submissive originates with the Quentin Tarantino movie Pulp Fuction. My natural instincts were that that is not the case, but some cursory web searches have done nothing to prove otherwise. A quick glance at OED also offers no illumination. Is anyone aware of earlier uses of the word with that meaning? ---
**Author:** ![Eleusis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Eleusis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleusis)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2006, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-gimp/371377/2 "2006-09-04T06:46:48Z")
Before Pulp Fiction, it was always a derogatory term for “cripple” or “guy with a limp”, to me anyway. ---
**Author:** ![draino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/53a042/32.png) [@draino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/draino)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2006, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-gimp/371377/3 "2006-09-04T07:59:41Z")
[QUOTE=Eleusis] Before Pulp Fiction, it was always a derogatory term for “cripple” or “guy with a limp”, to me anyway. [/QUOTE] Yes, and for me too. Indeed, no dictionary I have examined (aside from the Urban Dictionary) lists a sexual submissive or somesuch as a definition, and, before Pulp Fiction, I can’t remember it ever being used in a sexual sense. If it is the case that Pulp Fiction coined this usage, then I’m surprised and impressed. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2006, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-gimp/371377/4 "2006-09-04T08:50:47Z")
IME, ‘gimp’ always means someone who, for whatever reason, isn’t as physically capable as an average person. It could be a missing limb or a palsy or paralysis. It need not be connected to a mental deficit, but that isn’t rare. It’s also the name of an image editing suite, the ‘GNU Image Manipulation Program’. I’ve never heard it used to mean sub. I think the _Pulp Fiction_ usage was a broadening of the meaning into a general derogatory term, like ‘asshole’ or ‘moron’. ---
**Author:** ![danceswithcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9e8a1a/32.png) [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2006, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-gimp/371377/5 "2006-09-04T09:10:48Z")
In my lifetime, the disabled or crippled usage prevailed. Upon seeing a friend who was walking with an injured gait, I would query, “Why are you gimping?” Never did I hear the sexual slave connotation until after Pulp. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2006, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-gimp/371377/6 "2006-09-04T11:30:55Z")
[QUOTE=Eleusis] Before Pulp Fiction, it was always a derogatory term for “cripple” or “guy with a limp”, to me anyway. [/QUOTE] Even after Pulp Fiction I have heard it primarily to an injured person. I can’t think of any place other than PF where I’ve seen it used differently. ---
**Author:** ![FRDE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e68b1a/32.png) [@FRDE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FRDE)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2006, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-gimp/371377/7 "2006-09-04T13:34:01Z")
Well have a look at British kids comics circa the 1960’s - Colonel Blimp the stupid old Gimp D.C. Thompson were amazingly seditious ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2006, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-gimp/371377/8 "2006-09-04T15:15:48Z")
[QUOTE=draino] Some people I know seem to think that the usage of the word “gimp” to refer to a sexual submissive originates with the Quentin Tarantino movie Pulp Fiction. [/QUOTE] I don’t think the term was used this way even in _Pulp Fiction_. The movie features a scene where two main characters are captured by rapists. The rapists also have a man who appears to be mentally ill or retarded—i.e., a gimp—whom they have dressed in bondage gear and presumably use as a submissive or unwilling participant in their sexual activities. The fact that the man is sexually submissive is incidental to his being a gimp. Viewers who were not familiar with the term “gimp” may have misunderstood the term as referring to his sexual role rather than his disability. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2006, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-gimp/371377/9 "2006-09-04T15:20:14Z")
It should be noted that Quentin Tarantino wasn’t intending in the movie _Pulp Fiction_ to make “gimp” into a slang term meaning “male sexual submissive”. He just introduced a character in one scene who was completely bound up whom another character called “the Gimp”. It’s not even clear why the other character calls him “the Gimp”. Was this person someone who was lame and had been imprisoned by the two characters in the basement of the pawn shop? Was this someone who wasn’t even lame, but the two guys had taken to calling him “the Gimp” because his binding made him, in effect, lame? Heck, it wasn’t even clear to me that he was supposed to be a sexual submissive. It’s viewers who saw this film and decided to make the term “gimp” mean “male sexual submissive”. This is almost certainly a post-_Pulp Fiction_ meaning for the term then. I never heard this meaning before opening this thread. FRDE writes: \> Well have a look at British kids comics circa the 1960’s \> - Colonel Blimp the stupid old Gimp \> \> D.C. Thompson were amazingly seditious Could you elaborate on this? Are you claiming that the term “Gimp” was used as an insult meaning “male sexual submissive” in 1960’s British comics? Or are you merely claiming that it was an insult meaning “lame person” in those comics? If the second situation is so, that wouldn’t be particularly new. “Gimp” has been used as an insult for a long time where it means “lame person”. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2006, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-gimp/371377/10 "2006-09-04T15:23:06Z")
I think psychonaut and I just made the same point, but he did it more succinctly than I did. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2006, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-gimp/371377/11 "2006-09-04T16:09:36Z")
> [@](#): > > Could you elaborate on this? Are you claiming that the term “Gimp” was used as an insult meaning “male sexual submissive” in 1960’s British comics? Or are you merely claiming that it was an insult meaning “lame person” in those comics? If the second situation is so, that wouldn’t be particularly new. “Gimp” has been used as an insult for a long time where it means “lame person”. The poster was making a joke. It’s ridiculous to think a kids comic, esp. from that era, would use a derogatory and kinky term for a sexual submissive. Since its so ridiculous, the poster posted as though it were true, as bit of sarcasm, in order to make the point that the term must not have had that meaning, at least as of the time of the printing of that comment. -FrL- ---
**Author:** ![draino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/53a042/32.png) [@draino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/draino)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2006, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-gimp/371377/12 "2006-09-04T17:01:02Z")
Good, I like that a great deal. It didn’t even occur to me that the usage might have originated from a misunderstanding of the word instead of simply being coined. Your suggestion makes a lot of sense. [QUOTE=psychonaut] I don’t think the term was used this way even in _Pulp Fiction_. The movie features a scene where two main characters are captured by rapists. The rapists also have a man who appears to be mentally ill or retarded—i.e., a gimp—whom they have dressed in bondage gear and presumably use as a submissive or unwilling participant in their sexual activities. The fact that the man is sexually submissive is incidental to his being a gimp. Viewers who were not familiar with the term “gimp” may have misunderstood the term as referring to his sexual role rather than his disability. [/QUOTE] ---
**Author:** ![MissMossie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@MissMossie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissMossie)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2006, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-gimp/371377/13 "2006-09-04T17:11:32Z")
Oddly enough, gimp is also an alternate name for the [plastic lacing](http://www.ssww.com/store/product/sku=BK1152/cmc=BRWSCMBRES/grp=CMB/sbgrp=RES/p=1/) that is used to make lanyard keychains. I’d love to know how the vastly different meanings of the word developed. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2006, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-gimp/371377/14 "2006-09-04T18:01:35Z")
[QUOTE=MissMossie] Oddly enough, gimp is also an alternate name for the [plastic lacing](http://www.ssww.com/store/product/sku=BK1152/cmc=BRWSCMBRES/grp=CMB/sbgrp=RES/p=1/) that is used to make lanyard keychains. I’d love to know how the vastly different meanings of the word developed. [/QUOTE] Yeah, that was my first encounter with the word “gimp”, back in 1991 when gimp bracelets and gimp keychains were all the rage. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2006, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-gimp/371377/15 "2006-09-04T19:37:58Z")
> [@](#): > > Viewers who were not familiar with the term “gimp” may have misunderstood the term as referring to his sexual role rather than his disability. I ran into an example of this back when _Pulp Fiction_ had recently come out. A local radio DJ had obviously seen the movie and apparently had never heard the word before and was generally ignorant about its history. He was rattling on, in typical morning DJ fashion, and used the word gimp about a dozen times in refering to people he was talking about. Then about ten minutes later, he came back, now suddenly completely serious, and said that he had not been aware that what he had been saying had “other meanings” and he wanted to apologize to anybody who was offended or might otherwise wish to file an FCC complaint. Okay, he didn’t actually say the part about an FCC complaint but it was clear he was worried about it. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2006, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-gimp/371377/16 "2006-09-04T21:40:33Z")
Frylock writes: \> The poster was making a joke. It’s ridiculous to think a kids comic, esp. from \> that era, would use a derogatory and kinky term for a sexual submissive. You’re probably right that FRDE was making a joke, but it’s not much more ridiculous that a kids’ comic would use a derogatory term for a handicapped person than that they would use a derogatory term for a sexual submissive. I’d still like FRDE to elaborate on the context in which 1960’s British comics used the term “gimp”. What did the term “gimp” mean at the time? How taboo was it to use the term? Were they actually being subversive by using that term, or was FRDE just joking about that? ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2006, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-gimp/371377/17 "2006-09-04T23:08:49Z")
[QUOTE=Wendell Wagner] You’re probably right that FRDE was making a joke, but it’s not much more ridiculous that a kids’ comic would use a derogatory term for a handicapped person than that they would use a derogatory term for a sexual submissive. I’d still like FRDE to elaborate on the context in which 1960’s British comics used the term “gimp”. What did the term “gimp” mean at the time? How taboo was it to use the term? Were they actually being subversive by using that term, or was FRDE just joking about that? [/QUOTE] [Colonel Blimp](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonel_Blimp) was not in origin a kid’s comic, but instead a satirical caricature by editorial cartoonist David Low starting in the 1930s. I can’t find anything on a Col. Blimp children’s comic in the 1960s. More on Col. Blimp: [http://www.politicalcartoon.co.uk/html/history14.htm](http://www.politicalcartoon.co.uk/html/history14.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-gimp/371377/18 "2006-09-05T00:06:50Z")
The [GIMP!](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IxW97e64nk) ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-gimp/371377/19 "2006-09-05T00:29:10Z")
[QUOTE=psychonaut] I don’t think the term was used this way even in _Pulp Fiction_. The movie features a scene where two main characters are captured by rapists. The rapists also have a man who appears to be mentally ill or retarded—i.e., a gimp—whom they have dressed in bondage gear and presumably use as a submissive or unwilling participant in their sexual activities. The fact that the man is sexually submissive is incidental to his being a gimp. Viewers who were not familiar with the term “gimp” may have misunderstood the term as referring to his sexual role rather than his disability. [/QUOTE] I agree with the analysis above, and all of my books/websites on slang/etymology would agree that there is not likely a sexual general meaning of “gimp.” ---
**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-gimp/371377/20 "2006-09-05T00:46:08Z")
Isn’t gimp an old word for a particular kind of supple leather (hence the recent use of it for that lacing)? Am I imagining this? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-gimp/371377.md?page=2)