The most recent entry in the dictionary dates to the 2000 novel “My Once Upon a Time,” by the British novelist Diran Adebayo, where “simp” appears twice in the first 20 pages. An insult takes a dizzying trip through rap, men’s rights, misogyny and TikTok. Some recent terms similar to simp include best leading indicators for day trading cuck, reply guy, white knight, nice guy, and softboi. No Simp September challenges men to refrain from simping (that, acting like a so-called simp towards young women) during the entire month of September. If you’ve bagged yourself a simp and like him, he’s probably the sort of guy to hold on to.
- The slang simp helped prompt an alliterative internet challenge called No Simp September, a riff on other such occasions as No Nut November, itself modeled on the likes of No-Shave November.
- Now, the use of the word “simp” has gained traction outside of AAVE and incel discourse, thanks to the wildfire-esque nature of Twitter virality.
- Simp’s new status as a prime insult — a misogynist one, that implies a person is “unmanly” — has lasted most of a year.
But “simp” has evolved into an even larger meme, one that in a way makes fun of the word and its misogynistic usage. You can be a simp for a celebrity, a character on a TV show or even a good ol’ cup of coffee. But in every one of these declarations of simping, there’s a welcome hint of irony, a knowing wink that says, I understand that men who use this word as a way to tear down other men for respecting women are fucking morons. If you’ve been online at all for the last few months, chances are you’ve seen people calling themselves ‘simps’ or accusing each other of ‘simping.’ The word is truly everywhere. Megan Thee Stallion raps, “you on some simp shit” in her song “Cash Shit”.
A song called “Simp (Simp Nation Theme Song)” starts playing. The first wave of simp content on TikTok and YouTube was driven by men. More recently, a simp-related video trope driven by female creators has emerged. In the early 2010s, the word, still used with some regularity by rappers, was seized upon by members of the nascent “manosphere,” the world of men’s rights activism. Simp became a staple of men’s rights forums, where feminism is derided as weakening men — just waiting for an enterprising TikToker to dust it off and give it a new sheen. Insulting men for traditionally non-masculine qualities—being vulnerable, sensitive, kind, and thoughtful towards their partners—is nothing new.
Simp was referred to as someone being soft and overly sympathetic in the 1980s and was frequently used as the antonym of pimp. The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English traces usage of the noun simp back to 1903, although it was made trendy on TikTok in 2019. AS if keeping up with millennial humor and memes were not hard enough, trendy words emerge daily to add to our lexicon.
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As simp has become more widely used, it appears to be evolving as a slang way of indicating someone has a crush on someone. The first of September 2020, sure enough, saw No Simp September go viral on Twitter. The word simp is meant to troll young men for doing anything for a girl to get some action he supposedly deserves. Twitch is also “proactively denying” emotes that include all three of these terms as well. In July of 2020, the official Archie Comics Twitter account said it would ban fans on YouTube if they referred to Archie Andrews as a simp.
One you may have stumbled across is “simp” which to most of us has no meaning whatsoever. Derived from the word “simpleton,” the popular term began as a way to mock men who pander to women in an effort to sleep with them. But over time, the term has evolved, and “simp” is now often used to refer to anyone who treats a woman with kindness and respect. Then there’s simp as a short form of simpleton (a fool), which was first recorded all the way back in the early 1900s. The relationship between the historic and contemporary slang simp is unclear, but we can’t rule out connections—or at least associations—between the two terms. However, the term is also evolving some more general senses of liking someone, akin to the slang stan.
Popular Twitch streamer iDubbbz just addressed being labeled a “simp” after discussing his girlfriend’s OnlyFans account. The slang simp helped prompt an alliterative internet challenge called No Simp September, a riff on other such occasions as No Nut November, itself modeled on the likes of No-Shave November. While meant as a joke, discussions and descriptions of the challenge trade bonds online include a lot of sexist language and reinforce many traditional gender stereotypes. If you’ve recently downloaded TikTok out of boredom or in a last ditch attempt to find internet fame before it’s too late it’s fine, we’re all feeling it too. But when you get it you can’t help but be bombarded by a load of dancing teens, strange trends and most importantly – weird words.
Men who are ‘too nice’ to women are called ‘simps.’ Why this insult is problematic.
The word “simp” can pressure men to conform to traditional stereotypes of aggression and dominance, while objectifying women as transactional, says Abigail Riemer, an assistant professor of psychology at Carroll University. “Over the past couple generations, women have been growing in their standing, power, financial access and leadership, but some men see this as a threat,” he says. “I don’t know what simp will evolve into but it will always be a negative word if you’re called that,” Too Short said.
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That usage only became popular on TikTok in 2019, and may have peaked thanks to a trope made popular by Marco Borghi, whose account, @polo.boyy, has more than 2 million followers on the platform. In the same way that older songs can find new audiences on TikTok, older slang emerges on the app to be championed by a broader, younger audience. Rapper Boosie called Michael B. Jordan a simp back in February for fawning over and expressing his love for his girlfriend Lori Harvey.
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“Simping for a girl” — or a guy, since it’s not just straight men using the term — means you’re crushing hard on someone who may or may not like you back, to the point that some of your actions can seem a bit pathetic. And teens, as they typically do, are making self-deprecating jokes and TikToks about it. For the most part, Gen-Zers aren’t using simp in the exact horrible way men’s rights activists are. They have, once again, created a different definition of the word. Simp gained much more mainstream attention starting in December 2019. Derived from the word “simpleton,” the popular word got its start as a way to mock or insult men who pander to women in an effort to sleep with them.
“Nonblack people have ruined “simp”….as they ruin all AAVE,” one Twitter user said. The simple definition of simp is someone who does way too much for a person they like. In essence, a simp is someone who sucks up, schmoozes, or otherwise fawns over another individual who is of romantic interest. I don’t like the term simping because it kinda promotes toxic masculinity, and I’m not about that. #SimpNation quickly became a viral hashtag as TikTokers posted videos with captions that described apparent simp behaviors. A verb that’s used to describe the action of being a simp, “simping” is everywhere these days — but what exactly does it mean, and where did the term come from?
“I feel like my boyfriend definitely fits the context of being a simp,” Ms. Halbach said. Too Short said that he may have drawn it from 1970s Blaxploitation movies, where the word thrived. The 1982 B-movie “Penitentiary II” even had a character named Simp. Too Short, the bawdy West Coast rapper who used the word in lyrics as best settings for stochastic oscillator early as 1985, said that he was not surprised that the word is more popular than ever. In January 2021, Vogue reported on an “adoring” Instagram account of self-declared “simps” expressing affection toward then-Georgia Senate candidate Jon Ossoff.[4] Ossoff won the election and was sworn in as a senator on January 20, 2021.
Simping is a common verb that describes the action of being a simp. A person or experience that teaches you a lesson improves your future behaviour by making you experience the bad effects of your actions. Levant suggests people make an effort to challenge stereotypes. That’s why it’s important to avoid “simp” shaming and instead celebrate and normalize self-expression for both men and women. Though use of the term may seem like a harmless joke, experts say it’s damaging to equate a man’s kindness with weakness.
Nor is a slang term like simp new, and there have been many, many other slang terms, old (like being whipped) and recent, used in a similar way. Simp is a slang insult for men who are seen as too attentive and submissive to women, especially out of a failed hope of winning some entitled sexual attention or activity from them. Twitch COO Sara Clemens announced the banning of simp and other words in 2020, as the policy means to prohibit derogatory statements about another person’s perceived sexual preferences. Simp, a popular word used by millennials and gen-Z, has taken social media by storm. MEL reported on the usage back in October, when the word was taking off on TikTok. You could find thousands of videos with the hashtag #SimpNation, which has accumulated over 93.3 million views.
The dictionary lists its first known usage as 1946, though it appeared in The New York Times as early as 1923. If someone is calling you a simp, they are probably using it as an insult. However, if they use simp in a situation where neither sycophant nor simpleton would make much sense, they might be using the term as an acronym. If someone calls you a simp or uses the word simp in conversation, your first inclination might be to be offended. However, The Free Dictionary states the word simp can be much more than an abbreviation for simpleton or sycophant. This term can be used as an acronym that stands for many different things.
It is not very useful to know the definition of a word but not how to use it. This shortening of the word sycophant can be used to refer to any person who does something to gain someone else’s favor. Just know that if an angry, involuntarily celibate man calls you a simp, you’re probably doing fine. But if a woman you’re trying to win over calls you a simp, well, maybe you should move on. But another less infuriating type of video features teens poking fun at themselves for being simps.
There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data. In other words, it describes an allegedly unbalanced relationship between two people, often where only one person has romantic feelings for the other. Read on to discover everything you need to know about the word simping. These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word ‘simp.’ Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.