wimp
pronunciation
How to pronounce wimp in British English:
UK [wɪmp]
How to pronounce wimp in American English:
US [wɪmp]
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- Noun:
- a person who lacks confidence, is irresolute and wishy-washy
Word Origin
- wimp
- wimp: [20] The first record of the word wimp ‘feeble ineffectual person’ is from as long ago as 1920, but it was not used at all widely until the early 1960s. Its origins have never been satisfactorily explained. It is tempting to link it with J. Wellington Wimpy, a curious little man with a moustache who featured in the Popeye cartoons, but he was not around in the 1920s.Nor is it altogether plausible that it came from American slang gimp ‘lame or handicapped person’. Perhaps the least unlikely suggestion is that it is short for whimper. No connection with the now obsolete slang wimp ‘woman’ [20] (perhaps an alteration of women) has ever been demonstrated. In the 1980s WIMP was used as an acronym for ‘weakly interacting massive particle’ and for ‘widows/icon/mouse/pointer’, a computer term.
- wimp (n.)
- 1920 (but not attested again until 1960), perhaps a clipped form of whimper (cf whimp, 1540s), perhaps influenced by J. Wellington Wimpy, comparatively unaggressive character in "Popeye" comics.
- wimp (v.)
- 1986, with out (adv.), from wimp (n.). Related: Wimped; wimping.
Example
- 1. They elected a warrior and they got a wimp .
- 2. I feel ashamed because I may appear a wimp .
- 3. My problem was that I was an anger wimp and didn 't follow through .
- 4. You 're feisty , eh ? What should I be ? A wimp ?
- 5. As far as the desktop wimp paradigm is concerned windows 8 represents the smallest upgrade microsoft has ever issued .