Tattoo Parlour Pimping (NOT)

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>Sounds like a mistake for "pumped".

I agree. But I can't be sure.

As for "pimping" during medical training, here is the classic
reference, I think, from JAMA:

http://www.neonatology.org/pearls/pimping.html

[JAMA is a *major* medical journal.]

I think in this context "pimp [someone]" = "ask pimp questions of [someone]".

A "pimp question" is a difficult and potentially embarrassing
question, perhaps involving arcane or extraneous lore (at least in
the opinion of the pimpee).

Why "pimp"? There is of course an acronym etymology available ("put
in my place") ... probably just as reliable as other acronym etymologies.

My casual speculation is that "pimp question" = "question asked by a
pimp" ... or "pimp [someone]" = "behave like a pimp toward [someone]"
... with "pimp" in its older [figurative] sense of "despicable
person" or so. But I'm not at all sure of this.

The notion that the "pimp question" is asked in order to educate the
questioner is not at all plausible according to my (limited and not
necessarily representative) experience.

-- Doug Wilson


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