Sc. and north. dial. Forms: 6 gymp, (gympt), 8–9 gimp, 8– jimp. [Known in Sc. since c. 1500; origin obscure. It has been compared with GIM a., ‘smart, spruce,’ of the same age, and with JUMP a., exact, precise, which appears later; but in neither case is the sense congruous.]
1. Slender, slim, delicate, graceful, neat. (A Scotch or northern word, introduced in 19th c. into English literature.)
1508. Dunbar, Tua Mariit Wemen, 69. Gymp, iolie, and gent, richt ioyus, and gentryce, I suld at fairis be found.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, VI. x. 45. Apon his harp … Now with gymp fingeris doing stringis smyte. Ibid., XII. Prol. 121. Gymp gerraflouris thar royn levys vnschet.
a. 1550. Christis Kirke Gr., iii. Of all thir madynis … Wes nane sa gympt as Gillie.
1719. Lady Wardlaw, Hardy Knute, I. 27. Her girdle showed her middle gimp.
1788. Burns, ‘O, were I on Parnassus’ hill,’ ii. I see thee dancing o’er the green, Thy waist sae jimp, thy limbs sae clean.
1844. Willis, Lady Jane, II. 598. Satin waistcoat … Becoming to a youth so jimp and slim.
a. 1845. Barham, Ingol. Leg., Knt. & Lady, xii. Then his left arm he placed Round her jimp, taper waist.
1893. Northumbld. Gloss., Gimp (g soft), thin, neat in figure.
2. Scanty; barely full; bare (measure).
1768. Ross, Helenore, I. 6. An’ howsoon as the jimp three raiths was gane.
1868. Atkinson, Cleveland Gloss., Jimp,… 3. small, scanty, deficient in measure.
Mod. Sc. I fancy he has given you but jimp measure to-day.
3. Comb., as jimp-waisted.
1826. J. Wilson, Noct. Ambr., Wks. 1855, I. 192. That bonny dark-haired … jimp-waisted lassie.
B. adv. Barely, scarcely.
1814. Scott, Diary, 10 Aug., in Lockhart. These islanders … are sober, good humoured, and friendly—but jimp honest.
1893. Stevenson, Catriona, xv. He had jimp said the word.
Hence Jimply adv., slenderly, scantily; Jimpness, slenderness.
1816. Scott, Old Mort., xxxvii. We are jimply provided for in beds rather.
1885. Chamb. Jrnl., II. 17 Jan., 43/1. She was plump, but jimp in the waist withal—not of the jimpness engendered by corsets and such-like devices, but of nature.
