Tom--
You *really* consulted 24 dictionaries on something as small and trivial and minor as this?
Wow. I am truly impressed. I for one would like to read that list, if only as a monument to someone who will truly go the extra mile to prove a point.
At any rate, as a public service to the list, I herewith append the definition in the OED, which is the definitive English language dictionary.
Having established the meaning of the word, maybe we can return to talking about Virginia history?
From the OED:
Pimp. n.
1. a. Originally: a person who arranges opportunities for (illicit) sexual intercourse; a procurer. Now: a man who takes a proportion of the earnings of a prostitute, usually in return for arranging clients, providing protection, etc.
1600 B. JONSON Euery Man out of his Humor III. i. sig. Iiiv, Punt. What is he for a Creature? Car. A Pimpe, a Pimpe, that I haue obseru'd yonder, the rarest Superficies of a Humor. 1666 S. PEPYS Diary 10 June (1972) VII. 159 The Duke of York is wholly given up to his new mistress... Mr. Brouncker it seems was the pimp to bring it about. 1711 R. STEELE Spectator No. 51 {page}6 He has been used as a Pimp to ravishing Tyrants, or successful Rakes. 1780 W. COWPER Progress of Error 326 Ye pimps..Who fasten without mercy on the fair, And suck, and leave a crawling maggot there. 1825 Mariners' Mag. 17 Sept. 226 The moment a vessel lands, these landlords and their pimps stand ready to conduct the sailors where the greatest inducements to debauchery and intemperance exist. 1871 B. TAYLOR tr. Goethe Faust (1875) I. xi. 135 A fitter woman ne'er was made To ply the pimp and gypsey trade. 1932 Evening Sun (Baltimore) 9 Dec. 31/5 Pimp, man who is supported by women. 1972 T. KOCHMAN Rappin' & Stylin' Out 243 The ‘pimp’..a person of considerable status in the street hierarchy..has acquired a stable of girls to hustle for him and give him money. 1994 R. PRESTON Hot Zone 274 We parked and walked through the town, and instantly we were surrounded by pimps.
b. depreciative. In extended use. A person who panders to an undesirable or immoral impulse, appetite, etc.; (gen.) a despicable person.
1649 Man in Moon 6-13 Dec. 265 He hath dubled a Captaine under Cromwels pimp, Col. Hugh. a1704 T. BROWN Satire on Quack in Wks. (1720) I. 70 Thou Church-yard Pimp, and Pander to the Grave. 1789 J. WOLCOT Imit. Horace I. xii. 8 That sends to counties, borough-towns, his crimps, Alias his vote-seducing pimps. 1843 E. MIALL in Nonconformist 3 441 The most abandoned pimp of the literary world. 1878 Edwardsville (Illinois) Intelligencer 16 Oct. 4/2 With a weak and servile chairman, and a political pimp for a secretary. 1962 S. E. FINER Man on Horseback xii. 241 He did not, like today's pimps of tyranny, pretend that the despotism was superior to the system of representative government. 1992 Metro (San Jose, Calif.) 7-13 May 13/4 The multi-national pimps who have cornered the economy and systematically sucked it dry.
2. orig. U.S. A spy, an informer; a telltale. Now chiefly Austral. and N.Z. slang.
1791 W. MACLAY Diary (1988) 390 He has acted in a Strange kind of Capacity half pimp half envoy, or perhaps more properly a kind of Political Eavesdropper about the British Court. 1865 Old Guard 3 429 Almost all the witnesses were the hired pimps and spies of Stanton's department{em}a set of vagabonds and thieves! 1899 J. BRADSHAW Highway Robbery under Arms (1912) 8 Yes, savagely they murdered him, The cowardly Blue Coat imps, Who were led on to where he slept By informing Peeler's pimps. 1938 X. HERBERT Capricornia 567 ‘I'm not a pimp.’ ‘What you mean pimp?’ ‘I'm not a police-informer.’ 1974 Age (Melbourne) 12 Oct. 12/1 You fat pimp! The standard response to ‘I'm going to tell on you’. 1984 Drum July 48 He vowed revenge on those singled out as the ‘pimps’ who drove him to prison.
3. Welsh English. A peeping Tom, a voyeur. rare.
1940 D. THOMAS Portrait of Artist as Young Dog 126, I lay like a pimp in a bush by Tom's side and squinted through to see him round his hands on Norma's breast.
4. U.S. slang. A male prostitute.
1942 Z. N. HURSTON in A. Dundes Mother Wit (1973) 223 The Harlem pimp is a man whose amatory talents are for sale to any woman who will support him... He is actually a male prostitute. 1960 H. WENTWORTH & S. B. FLEXNER Dict. Amer. Slang, Pimp, a male prostitite, usu. to homosexuals. Since c1935; from the assoc. of pimp and prostitute. 1994 Buffalo News (N.Y.) (Nexis) 18 Feb. (Gusto section) 1 Pimp means a man putting himself up for exploitation by women, in other words, a male prostitute.
COMPOUNDS
{dag}pimp errant n. Obs. rare a travelling pimp.
1631 B. JONSON Bartholmew Fayre III. v. 24 in Wks. II, I neuer saw a young *Pimpe errant, and his Squire better match'd. a1637 B. JONSON Magnetick Lady (1640) V. iv, I hope you take not me for a Pimpe errant, To deale in smock Affaires?
{dag}pimp-master n. Obs. rare a chief pimp.
1684 T. SOUTHERNE Disappointment II. i. 16 Now thou art *Pimp-master in Ord'nary to my Family.
{dag}pimp-master general n. humorous Obs. the chief of all pimps (as a supposed office or title).
1660 (title) The ladies champion confounding the author of the wandring whore, by Eugenius Theodidactus, powder-monkey, roguy-crucian, *pimp-master-general. 1696 M. PIX Spanish Wives I. ii. 5 Sir, you gave me five Ducats,{em}as I hope for Preferment, and to be made Pimp-master general, it deserves double the Sum.
{dag}pimp-tenure n. Obs. money paid for the lodging and other expenses of prostitutes.
1701 W. KENNETT Cowell's Interpreter sig. N2a, [Quotes Assize Roll, No. 48, m. 28d, of 12 Edw. I (1284), ‘Willelmus Hoppeshort, tenet dimidiam virgatam terræ in Bokhampton de Domino Rege, per servitium custodiendi sex Damisellas, scil. meretrices, ad custum Domini Regis,’ and adds] i.e. by *Pimp Tenure. 1800 G. CLARK Memoranda legalia 391 (heading) Pimp-tenure. 1874 W. C. HAZLITT Blount's Tenures of Land 30 [Translating the Assize Roll in quot. 1701] Bockhampton, Co. of Berks... William Hoppeshort holds half a yard-land, in that town, of our lord the king, by the service of keeping for the king six damsels, to wit, whores, at the cost of the king. This was called pimp-tenure.
{dag}pimp whisk n. colloq. Obs. rare = pimp-whiskin n.
1707 J. STEVENS tr. F. de Quevedo Comical Wks. 405 Such..Sayings are a Discredit to your self..as for Instance..a *Pimp whisk; a tatter demallion; tittle tattle.
{dag}pimp-whiskin n. colloq. Obs. a pander, a procurer; = sense 1a.
1638 J. FORD Fancies I. 8 'Tis a gallant life to bee an old Lords *pimpe-whiskin. 1653 R. BROME Damoiselle III. i. sig. D4v, Here she comes, and the Pimp whiskin with her. 1694 T. D'URFEY Comical Hist. Don Quixote Pt. 2 V. i. 53 What can't you think, Pimp-whiskin?
DERIVATIVES
{sm}pimp-like adv. and adj.
1646 W. SCOT in H. Mill 2nd Pt. Nights Search Pref., He never could find out what thou hast done: Or had he spi'd it, *Pimp-like he'd conceale The fact, which honour drives thee to reveale. 1676 T. SHADWELL Virtuoso I. 17 Prince-like, Pimp-like in sadness! I never knew an Orator that was not a Rascal. 1703 E. WARD London-spy Compleat I. XV. 361 A Man..who has no way left but, Pimp like, to live upon other Peoples Debaucheries. 1793 J. B. MORETON W. Indian Customs & Manners (new ed.) 77 They [sc. the female slaves] are ordered from the field to wait upon their master and his friends; and though this is a pimp-like action, most managers are guilty of it. 1987 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 7 Nov. 34/3 The Transport Minister..yesterday accused a Liberal MHR of a ‘sneaky pimp-like campaign of innuendo’.
All best,
Kevin
Kevin R. Hardwick, Ph.D.
Department of History
James Madison University
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