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.

Word origins - 2ed. . 2005.

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  • wimp — wimp; WIMP; wimp·i·ly; wimp·i·ness; wimp·ish; wimp·ish·ly; wimp·ish·ness; …   English syllables

  • WIMP — (von englisch Weakly Interacting Massive Particles, deutsch „schwach wechselwirkende massereiche Teilchen“, Wortspiel zu engl. wimp = Schwächling) sind hypothetische Teilchen der Teilchenphysik mit einer Masse zwischen einigen zehn und etwa… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Wimp — (von englisch Weakly Interacting Massive Particles, deutsch „schwach wechselwirkende massereiche Teilchen“, Wortspiel zu engl. wimp = Schwächling) sind hypothetische Teilchen mit einer Masse im Bereich zwischen einigen zehn und etwa tausend… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • wimp´y — wimp «wihmp», noun. Slang. an unassertive person usually considered weak and awkward: »Part of being a wimp is feeling sorry for yourself (Maclean s). ╂[origin uncertain] –wimp´y, adjective. WIMP «no pehrihods; pronounced wihmp», noun. Nuclear… …   Useful english dictionary

  • Wimp — may refer to: * A physical or emotional weakling (considered to be derived from J. Wellington Wimpy, a character in the Popeye cartoon series). WIMP, as an acronym, may refer to: * Weakly interacting massive particle, a hypothetical class of… …   Wikipedia

  • wimp — /wimp/, Informal. n. 1. a weak, ineffectual, timid person. v. 2. wimp out, a. to be or act like a wimp. b. to show timidity or cowardice; chicken out. [1915 20, Amer.; orig. uncert.; cf. WHIMPER] * * * …   Universalium

  • wimp — [wimp] Slang n. [< ?] a weak, ineffectual, or insipid person wimp out to back down or succumb because of fear, timidity, or weakness wimpish adj. wimpy adj. wimpier, wimpiest …   English World dictionary

  • wimp — informal ► NOUN ▪ a weak and cowardly person. ► VERB (wimp out) ▪ withdraw from something in a cowardly way. DERIVATIVES wimpish adjective wimpy adjective. ORIGIN origin uncertain, perhaps from WHIMPER( …   English terms dictionary

  • WIMP — [wimp] n. [w(eakly) i(nteracting) m(assive) p(article)] a hypothetical, electrically neutral, massive subatomic particle that interacts with other matter by means of the weak interaction …   English World dictionary

  • WIMP — /wimp/, n. any of a group of weakly interacting elementary particles predicted by various unified field theories, as the W particle and Z zero particle, that are characterized by relatively large masses. [1985 90; W(eakly) I(nteracting) M(assive) …   Universalium

  • WIMP — (weakly interacting massive particles) Partículas de gran masa, simétricas de las actualmente conocidas, que sólo sufren interacciones débil y gravitatoria, y son candidatas a constituir la materia oscura fría (cold dark matter) …   Enciclopedia Universal

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