[Ads-l] gimp suit

[Daphne Preston-Kendal]

> On 22 Jul 2023, at 20:26, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> <https://www.yahoo.com/news/man-gimp-suit-allowed-roam-135439357.html>
> https://www.yahoo.com/news/man-gimp-suit-allowed-roam-135439357.html
> 
> Bing AI at first refused to define this, saying "Hmmm, let's try another
> topic."


The reference is to ‘The Gimp’, a character in Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction. GDoS cites only a stage direction, but the name is also mentioned in dialogue. 
<https://greensdictofslang.com/entry/5tgbmyy>
I think its association of the character’s name with the other senses in the entry is probably correct, but maybe Tarantino has written or given an interview somewhere about why they named the character that.

Earliest use of the compound I can find in Google Books is interestingly a different use, in the film industry. The book has only snippet view here in Germany, but I think it’s talking about a motion-capture suit used to map a human actor’s movements onto a CGI model character.

Andy Serkis, 2003, ‘Gollum: How We Made Movie Magic’, p. 22:
I was crouching in my trailer, in my 'gimp' suit, waiting to go on set.

I assume this application of the term is on-set humour, meaning there are probably earlier uses in the sense used here.



Daphne Preston-Kendal

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