Entry · catalog no. 8812
pimp
/ /pɪmp/ /PIMP
noun / verb · Chicago / national · 1960s
✓ Verified
1.
A man who procures clients for sex workers and takes their earnings; the original and still literal sense.
“He was a pimp on the South Side in the fifties, and he told the whole story afterward.”
2.
In Black vernacular culture, a stylish, confident man who commands a room; the verb "pimpin'" means to move with that swagger or to exploit someone.
“He came through pimpin' in a full-length coat and a pair of gators.”
Origin & Attribution
The word itself is old in English, with an uncertain etymology, and it was not coined by Black Americans. Its place in Black vernacular culture is documented in Iceberg Slim's 1967 autobiography Pimp: The Story of My Life, written by the Black Chicago author Robert Beck and published by Holloway House, which brought the pimp's world, argot and self-image to a wide Black readership. The figure was then carried into 1970s Black film and, later, hip-hop, where "pimpin'" broadened into a general term for style and control. This entry documents the term plainly; it records a trade built on the exploitation of women and does not endorse it.
1967
Iceberg Slim publishes Pimp: The Story of My Life with Holloway House
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
The Midwest
Chicago / national · 1960s
Spoken by
Black urban communities; hip-hop artists and audiences
$PIMPThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Steady59 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
75/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
1967
in the culture
Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.
Hear it spoken
By region — how it actually sounds
@chitown
Chicago, IL
@detlex
Detroit, MI
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Citations & Sources
■
Iceberg Slim (Robert Beck), Pimp: The Story of My Life (Holloway House, 1967)
book
■
+ Cite a sourceWikipedia, "Iceberg Slim" (publication history)
web
See also