bimbo

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Bimbo is a term that emerged in popular English language usage in the early 20th century to describe a physically attractive but unintelligent woman. Use of this term began in the United States as early as 1919, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, which cites the American Magazine issue of November that year. The sense here was of a stupid man (see below). The etymology is given only as "slang (orig. U.S.)". Further cites in the OED show the male sense being used by P.G. Wodehouse as late as 1947, in Full Moon. The first cite in the OED for its female meaning is in 1929, from the scholarly journal American Speech, where the definition was given simply as "a woman".

History

The 1929 silent film Desert Nights describes a wealthy female crook as a bimbo. In The Broadway Melody, the winner of Best Picture for the same year, an angry Bessie Love calls a chorus girl a bimbo. This word derives from the Italian bimbo^{[citation needed]}, derived from bambino (Italian for child), a masculine-gender term that means (male) baby or very young (male) child (its feminine equivalent is bimba).

The 1950s song "Bimbo", about a toddler, was one of the early hits for the popular American singer Jim Reeves. Its first usage in English was for stupid men; it now is understood to mean a woman unless modified as male bimbo, himbo, or mimbo. Some still prefer the explicitly female variant, bimbette, which has also entered The American Heritage Dictionary. Others use bimbette for a younger bimbo, because the suffix -ette signifies a smaller version, as in French.

The archetype of a bimbo with sex appeal is much used as a stock character in comedies with sexual humor, an example being Christina Applegate's character, Kelly Bundy, in Married... with Children.

A beauty contest game called Miss NIDA Bimbo is an online game in which players, of a large range of ages, including grandparents, can purchase operations such as facelifts and breast implants in order to impress virtual boys, with proper warning of the dangers it may cause in reality. The game has received condemnation from parents, especially in the British region.^[1]

In the 90's decade the Danish band Aqua used the word Bimbo in their major hit Barbie-Girl, using the dumb blonde archetype as well (I'm a blonde bimbo girl...), which was used by Mattel in the legal conflict against Aqua and their record company for the representation of the popular Barbie doll.

An older comedy archetype of perhaps more direct resemblance to the bimbo is the dumb blonde—for example, the giggling, naïve characters portrayed by such sultry actresses as Marilyn Monroe and, as she appeared on Laugh-In, Goldie Hawn.

Like so many words the meaning of 'bimbo' changed over time. According to the book Flappers 2 Rappers by Tom Dalzell, "bimbo" meant "great person" in the 1920s'. It wasn't until the 30s' that it was even associated with females. Oftentimes songs like "My Little Bimbo Down on the Bamboo Isle" (1920) are characterized as being blatantly sexist when in reality the listener is simply ignorant of the original meaning of the words used in the lyrics.

See also

• Dumb blonde
• Pejorative
• Tchotchke
• Twink
• Valspeak
• Valley girl

References

1. ^ "Parents upset over online Miss Bimbo game for children". Taipei Times. 2008-03-30. http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/bizfocus/archives/2008/03/30/2003407697. Retrieved 2008-04-01.