Sunday, January 18, 2009

bimbo etymology

bimbo
1919, "fellow, chap," from It. variant of bambino "baby," first in Italian-accented theater dialogue. Originally especially "stupid, inconsequential man, contemptible person;" by 1920 the sense of "floozie" had developed (popularized by "Variety" staffer Jack Conway, d.1928). Resurrection during 1980s U.S. sex scandals led to derivatives including dim. bimbette (1990) and male form himbo (1988).

himbo??

and where did this word go between the 20s and the 80s? how does a word get "resurrected" all of a sudden? by comedians? newspaper writers? even following a word's origins, we are left with even more questions.

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