In our recent episode, Dust Bunnies and Ghost Turds, Grant mentioned simping, a slang term for “the act of pursuing a woman online in a fawning fashion.” What’s the etymological source of simping? “Cyberpimping”? “Acting like a simpleton”? “Simpering”? This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Etymology of Simping”
Martha, you’ll remember that earlier this year I used simping in the slang quiz.
Right, simping.
It means to actively pursue a woman online in a kind of fawning fashion.
Well, Matt Morgan wrote to ask if the word simping, that’s S-I-M-P-I-N-G, originated with the term cyber pimping, which means more or less to act like a Casanova or Mac Daddy online in a way that you might not offline.
And so I think that’s actually a pretty good question because we don’t really know where simping came from.
I don’t think it is cyber pimping, but Matt, I offer you these ideas.
What about it being related to the more simple word, simple, S-I-M-P-L-E?
A person who is simple, someone who acts like a simpleton, is someone who behaves in kind of a stupid or idiotic manner because simping is not really a term of approval.
You don’t want to be accused of simping online.
Even better, Martha, it might be related, maybe, to the word simper, meaning to smile coyly or affectedly in a silly self-conscious way.
Yeah, that’s what I was thinking.
But you know what?
I’m just not sure that the kind of folks, mainly young men online who use the language simping, would even know that the word simper exists.
Well, you may have a point there.
It’s the kind of word you would encounter in Edith Wharton novels that are not likely to see online.
Edith Wharton, not World of Warcraft, right?
Right, exactly, exactly.
Yeah, not in WoW, but in EW.
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