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<DIV><FONT face="Arial Unicode MS">Fritz Goerling asked:</FONT></DIV></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Unicode MS">> Where does "wimp" come from?<BR>>
What are some of its "synonyms" in English (American, British, or
other<BR>> variants of English)?<BR></FONT></FONT></DIV></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Unicode MS">Fritz,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Unicode MS"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Unicode MS">This is the entry for "wimp" (n) from the
online etymology dictionary:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Unicode MS"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Unicode MS">1920 (but not attested again until 1960),
perhaps a clipped form of <SPAN class=foreign>whimper</SPAN> (cf <SPAN
class=foreign>whimp,</SPAN> 1549), perhaps influenced by J. Wellington <SPAN
class=foreign>Wimpy,</SPAN> comparatively unaggressive character in <SPAN
class=foreign>"Popeye"</SPAN> comics. <SPAN class=foreign>Wimpy</SPAN> (adj.) is
from 1967.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Unicode MS"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Unicode MS">The NODE concurs that the origin of "wimp" is
unknown, but perhaps it is from "whimper".</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Unicode MS"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Unicode MS">"wet", "weed", "weakling", "wuss", (some
phonosemantics going on here) "sissy", "chicken" are some
synonyms.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Unicode MS"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Unicode MS">We have the "whimperative" mood in Amele
(Papuan) expressed by the sentence final postposition =mo. E.g. "wa itaga=mo"
'please give me some water' (usually expressed in a whimpering
tone).</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Unicode MS"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Unicode MS">John Roberts</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Unicode MS"></FONT> </DIV><FONT
face="Arial Unicode MS"></FONT>
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