pimp
v.— «I can’t say how long the term “pimping” has been used in medical circles but I first heard the term six years ago when I began working at a teaching hospital. The term comes from the fact that the clinical instructors would “pimp” the medical students as a way of updating their(the clinical professor’s) basic science and epidemology knowledge base. Instead of heading to a library or surfing the net, a clinical professor such as a surgical attending would pick the brain of a third-year medical student who was fresh from the basic science classes. This is analagous to the pimp who makes a living by the prostitution labors of the men and women in his or her stable on the street.» —“Re: Etymology of the word “Pimping”” by Natalie J. Belle in Howard University College of Medicine Usenet: misc.education.medical Sept. 12, 1997. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
A psychiatric home health worker is curious about the use of nuthouse to mean “a mental health facility.” This term goes back to the turn of the 20th century. The word nuts itself once had an extremely positive connotation, referring to...
J.P. in Temecula, California, is a high schooler studying French and Spanish. He notes that the Spanish word con means “with” and English has some linguistically related words, such as congress, which suggests “coming...