Is Evel Knievel a Pimp?

[Wilson Gray]

On Feb 2, 2005, at 3:28 PM, Mullins, Bill wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Mullins, Bill" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
> Subject:      Is Evel Knievel a Pimp?
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> From the Sports Law Blog
> http://sports-law.blogspot.com/2005/01/not-defamatory-evel-famous-
> darede
> vil.html
>
>
> "Famous daredevil Evel Knievel had his lawsuit against ESPN thrown out
> by a federal appeals court yesterday. Knievel and his wife had sued
> ESPN
> for defamation stemming from a caption to a picture posted on its
> website (which has since been taken down). The picture, of Knievel and
> his wife, had a caption that read: "Evel Knievel proves that you're
> never too old to be a pimp."
>
> This is of interest because the decision centered on the various slang
> meanings of the word

> ... the various slang meanings of the word "pimp"

FWIW, as I found out while chatting with my 15yo niece, for a lot of
today's younger people, "pimp" has only slang meanings and no literal
meaning. My niece was shocked! shocked! when I explained that literal
meaning to her. I wasn't shocked, but I was taken somewhat aback that
she had not the least idea of the primary meaning of "pimp."

  Back in my day, of course, as far as I can recall, the only slang term
was "pimpmobile" and I coined that one myself. Yes, really! I wouldn't
be surprised to discover that many others have also coined this term,
independently of me. But I really am the first person that I know of to
use this term. It was in May of 1963.

-Wilson Gray

> .  The court, whose decision is linked in the
> above blog entry, determined that in this case, a non-literal meaning
> should be inferred, based on the context and appearance of many other
> slang terms; therefore it was not reasonable to assume or infer (as,
> apparently Knievel and/or his attorneys did) that ESPN was saying that
> Evel Knievel was in fact a pimp, and had turned out his wife.
>
> The decision cites Lighter's HDAS.  Jon is now a part of legal history
> (and may have been for some time, for all I know).
>