# 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:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Eleusis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Eleusis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleusis)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-gimp/371377/21 "2006-09-05T01:12:19Z")
[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] Well, I have all your equipment in my locker. You should probably come get it cause I can’t fit my numchucks in there anymore. ---
**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 5, 2006, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-gimp/371377/22 "2006-09-05T07:47:26Z")
Colibri writes: \> Colonel Blimp was not in origin a kid’s comic, but instead a satirical caricature by \> editorial cartoonist David Low starting in the 1930s. Yes, I know what Colonel Blimp was. I presume that FRDE was saying that, in order to insult the type of thinking that Colonel-Blimp-like people represented, haracters in D. C. Thompson comics of the 1960’s who would say things like “Colonel Blimp is a gimp.” (Incidentally, D. C. Thompson was a publisher of comics.) I want FRDE to tell us if it’s really true that characters in these 1960’s comics would actually use the term “gimp” and what they meant by that word. ---
**Author:** ![FRDE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e68b1a/32.png) [@FRDE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FRDE)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-gimp/371377/23 "2006-09-05T08:44:45Z")
Well one learns something every year :-} It seems that David Low originated the cartoon character Colonel Blimp. It was also the central character in a British WWII propaganda film, in which he was a very sympathetic old soldier, but ill equipped for ‘total war’ - he was ousted when, IIRC, during war games the opposition sent their ‘bomb’ by post - the idea was to let the public know that the gloves were off I am afraid that my memory was faulty **Colonel Blink The Short-Sighted Gink** was a character in The Beezer > **[Colonel Blink](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonel_Blink)** > > Colonel Blink (tagline: "The Short-Sighted Gink") was a British comic strip, drawn by Tom Bannister in November 1958 for the majority of its run, with a few later strips being drawn by Bill Ritchie and Gordon Bell in the same style as Bannister. The strip was published in the comics magazine The Beezer. Denis Gifford in his Encyclopedia of Comic Characters (1987) attributes his creation to "Carmichael." His latest appearances were in the reprint Classics from the Comics series and the associate... Comically D C Thomson had a cartoonist called David _Law_ Apologies for that Gimp had no sexual connotations until Tarantino, actually until yesterday I was completely unaware of the connotation - when I saw Pulp Fiction I assumed that the usage was the same as the British one. > **[gimp | Search Online Etymology Dictionary](https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=gimp)** > > The online etymology dictionary (etymonline) is the internet's go-to source for quick and reliable accounts of the origin and history of English words, phrases, and idioms. It is professional enough to satisfy academic standards, but accessible... \*1925, “a crippled leg,” also “a crippled person,” perhaps by association with limp. \* My recieved usage is ‘a gimpy leg’, and to me ‘a gimp’ would be a non functional person, eg: a bit of an idiot. Oddly Gink seems to mean the same > **[gink](https://www.thefreedictionary.com/gink)** > > Definition, Synonyms, Translations of gink by The Free Dictionary _n. Slang A man, especially one regarded as foolish or contemptible. [Origin unknown.]_ Well now we know the origin of that one {sheepish grin} ---
**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 5, 2006, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-gimp/371377/24 "2006-09-05T08:55:54Z")
Thanks, FRDE, I now consider my question to be completely answered. There was a character in D. C. Thompson comics starting in 1958 who was named Colonel Blink. The name “Colonel Blink” was punning on the name “Colonel Blimp”. No one ever called Colonel Blink a gimp in those comics. They called him a gink. The word “gink” just means “a contemptible person”. ---
**Author:** ![FRDE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e68b1a/32.png) [@FRDE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FRDE)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-gimp/371377/25 "2006-09-05T09:23:08Z")
[QUOTE=Wendell Wagner] Thanks, FRDE, I now consider my question to be completely answered. There was a character in D. C. Thompson comics starting in 1958 who was named Colonel Blink. The name “Colonel Blink” was punning on the name “Colonel Blimp”. No one ever called Colonel Blink a gimp in those comics. They called him a gink. The word “gink” just means “a contemptible person”. [/QUOTE] Yes, (except substitute ‘foolish’ for ‘contemptible’) I strongly suspect that ‘Gink’ was invented by D C Thomson as a pun on ‘gimp’ Yet again apologies - my faulty memory ---
**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, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-gimp/371377/26 "2006-09-05T12:03:23Z")
[QUOTE=FRDE] I strongly suspect that ‘Gink’ was invented by D C Thomson as a pun on ‘gimp’ [/QUOTE] “Gink” goes back to 1906. ---
**Author:** ![cantara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6f9a4e/32.png) [@cantara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cantara)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-gimp/371377/27 "2006-09-05T13:50:22Z")
In my usage, I currently associate Gimp with ambulatory impairment, that is, some dysfunction preventing one from walking correctly such as a gimpy leg. During my grade school in the early-mid seventies in sourthern Ontario, it was also used as a mild derogatory term for a person with a lame personality. It just felt good to say it when someone was being a doofus, idiot, dummy, or goof. “Ya gimp!” I think it predated our usage of goof. ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-gimp/371377/28 "2006-09-05T14:42:17Z")
[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] Here’s more from the mid-19th century, source _Cassell’s Dictionary of Slang_: (US) _courage, bravery, spirit._ (Irish) _swagger, elegance._ (Scot) _slender, neat._ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-gimp/371377.md?page=1)