Q: "pimpon", 1702?

[Joel S. Berson]

In the published transcript of a Plymouth, Mass., court case of 1702, I read:

Otis ... Rose up out of his seat and said ... you are a pimpon Rogue
and if you were not a Grandjury man I would Hit you a slap in the chaps ...

What is "pimpon"?

To my amusement, _An universal etymological English dictionary ..._
(Nathan Bailey, Edward Harwood - 1782; GB) defines "pimponpet" as "a
kind of antick Dance, when three Persons hit one another on the
Breech with one of their Feet.  I think there's a bowdlerized version
of this dance, although attributed to MittelEurope, in "The Lady Vanishes."

Joel

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org