Albright College slang (1938) - bimb(o)

[Wilson Gray]

On Tue, Mar 8, 2011 at 8:46 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
> For men:
>
> Â a. A fellow, chap; usu. contemptuous.
>
> 1919 Â  Â Amer. Mag. Nov. 69/1 Â  Nothing but the most heroic measures
> will save the poor bimbo.
>

I can't remember whether I've mentioned this little-known fact before.
But, WTF? As everyone knows, I'd mention it again, anyway. :-)

Anyhow, the German B-girls who worked the black, uh, *colored*
GI-bars, back in the day, used "bimbo" - well, "Bimbo" - as their word
for any random black GI or group thereof, there being no distinct
plural form. It was also used as another word for _Mischling_
"mulatto," as in:

"Sie hat einen kleinen Bimbo"

said of some friend of the speaker that had recently given birth.

One of the girls told me - whispered to me, actually, for some reason
-  that _Bimbolina_ was used for "black woman." But, since there were
no black women around, I never heard that word used in the wild.

_Bimbo_, except in the sentence quoted above, was used, IME, only as a
very odd - to me; nobody else seemed to be bothered by it - form of
greeting.

One or more _Negerliebchen_ (IME, only a literary term) walk into a
black Ami-Bar. All the girls shout with glee:

"Bimbo!!!"

The word was not used under any other circumstances.

Now that I think about it, the word could very well have been
_B[E]mbo_. I wouldn't have noticed the difference, especially since I
was long since familiar with the English word, _bimbo_.

--
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

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