What Is The Meaning Of Pimp?

The word 'Pimp' is thought to derive (although no one can be entirely sure) from the French word 'Pimper', which means to dress well or elegantly.

A pimp is a person who finds and manages a group of prostitutes, either working the street or in a brothel.  The Pimp both protects the girls and finds work for them.  For this he takes a cut of their money.  Pimps do not usually force girls to work for them, but there have been murders related to pimping when girls have wanted to leave their work or wanted to go to work for another pimp.  Pimping is illegal in most countries and across almost the entire U.S.A.

Some people believe that Shakespeare refers to Polonius as a pimp in his play Hamlet.  This is in a scene where he calls him a fishmonger.  Fish was a common word for vagina.

Gangsta-Rap has made pimps cool, with 50 Cent even have a song called P.I.M.P.



More recently the 'pimp' has come to mean to 'do something up, as in MTV's popular show 'Pimp My Ride'.