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Gimp vs Imp - What's the difference?

gimp | imp |

As nouns the difference between gimp and imp

is that gimp is 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 {{term|guimpe}} while imp is a young shoot of a plant, tree etc.

As verbs the difference between gimp and imp

is that gimp is (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 ', etc. Also, generally, to wrap or twist with string or wire. See gimped''' while imp is to plant or engraft.

As an adjective gimp

is neat; trim; delicate; slender; handsome; spruce; elegant.

As an initialism IMP is

inosine monophosphate.

gimp

English

Etymology 1

Attested since about 1660, perhaps from (etyl) gimp'' or (etyl) guimpe, and likely from (etyl) ''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).

Noun

(en noun)
  • 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).
  • 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.
  • The plastic cord used in the plaiting and knotting craft (lanyard making); or, the process itself.
  • (dated, chiefly North Eastern US) Gumption; spirit; ambition; vigor; pep.
  • * 1898 , Charles Frederick Wingate, What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living? , page 255
    • Love them and encourage them, but put some 'gimp' into them.
  • * 1915 , Frederick Frye Rockwell, The Key to the Land: What a City Man Did with a Small Farm , page 72
    • You haven't got gimp enough to, any more than you could smash the rest of that pint, instead of swallowing it. You're a weakling...
  • * 1924 , , The Midlander , page 219
    • When people put a lot on what their folks used to do, it always means they haven't got gimp enough left to do anything themselves.
    Related terms
    * guimpe

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (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.
  • * 1982 , Robert Donington, Music and Its Instruments , page 69
    • ...low strings later than the mid-seventeenth century are commonly gimped (wound with fine wire on a moderate core) to allow sufficient tension without excessive mass or stiffness.
  • (dated) To notch or indent; to jag or make jagged; to edge with serrations or grooves.
  • * 1890 , Sarah Tyson Heston Rorer, How to Cook Vegetables , page 25
    • They are prettier cut and gimped in the shape of wheels.
  • * 1906 , Thomas Ernest Herbert, Telegraphy: A Detailed Exposition of the Telegraph System of the British , page 438
    • This active material consists of a tape of pure lead, which is gimped whilst cold with deep grooves and ridges...
  • * 1906 , George Dudley Aspinall Parr, Electrical Engineering: In Theory and Practice , page 421
    • Each hole is filled by a rosette of pure lead made by rolling up lead strip or tape which has been gimped or corrugated.
  • * 1978 , John Geraint Jenkins, Traditional Country Craftsmen , page 232
    • In some cases the leather has to be decorated with perforations while its edges may be serrated or gimped .

    Etymology 2

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

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (informal) A person who is lame due to a crippling of the legs or feet.
  • (informal) A crippled leg.
  • (informal) A limp or a limping gait.
  • * 1934 , , Madame La Gimp [http://books.google.com/books?q=%22gimp+in+one+leg%22]
    • She walks with a gimp in one leg, which is why she is called Madame La Gimp...
  • * 1934 , , What, No Butler? [http://books.google.com/books?id=h7OsO8GyjaAC&pg=PA35&dq=gimp&sig=edaefBbh1yxFkgXDQK7GkigyDQw]
    • ...Flat-wheel Walter...who is called by this name because he walks with a gimp on one side...
  • (slang, derogatory)
  • (BDSM) A sexual submissive, almost always male, dressed generally in a black leather suit. See in Wikipedia.
    • Synonyms
    * (person who is lame) cripple, disabled (person) * dweeb, nerd, geek, gump, spod, dork
    Related terms
    * gimp suit * gimpy

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (informal) To limp; to hobble.

    • Etymology 3

    Scots. Alternate form of (jimp). Compare (etyl) .

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (dated, Scotland and N England) Neat; trim; delicate; slender; handsome; spruce; elegant.
    • Quotations
    * (English Citations of "gimp")
    References
    * 1846 , John T. Brockett, A Glossary of North Country Words , page 190

    imp

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) A young shoot of a plant, tree etc.
  • * Sir Orfeo , 69:
    • Þai sett hem doun al þre / Vnder a fair ympe-tre.
  • (obsolete) A scion, offspring; a child.
  • * 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene I.3:
    • And thou most dreaded impe of highest Ioue'', / Faire ''Venus sonne, [...] come to mine ayde [...].
  • * Fairfax
    • The tender imp was weaned.
  • A young or inferior devil; a malevolent supernatural creature, similar to a demon but smaller and less powerful.
  • * Beattie
    • to mingle in the clamorous fray of squabbling imps
  • A mischievous child.
  • * 1908 ,
    • I've left my young children to look after themselves, and a more mischievous and troublesome set of young imps doesn't exist...
  • (UK, dialect, obsolete) Something added to, or united with, another, to lengthen it out or repair it, such as an addition to a beehive; a feather inserted in a broken wing of a bird; or a length of twisted hair in a fishing line.

    • Synonyms

    * (mischievous child) brat, urchin, little dickens

    Derived terms

    * impish * implike

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (obsolete) To plant or engraft.
  • (archaic) To graft, implant; to set or fix.
  • *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.
  • (falconry) To engraft feathers into a bird's wing.
    • "For, if I imp my wing on Thine" – Herbert (1633)
  • To eke out, strengthen, enlarge.

    • Anagrams

    * (l) * (l) * (l)