Simp

Simp is a surprisingly old word that has gained a lot of popularity lately.  The word is derived from sympathy and refers to someone who is sympathetic towards a particular person.  However, the word has changed over time.

Simp appeared in the New York Times in 1923.  Originally, it referred to a soft and kind man.  It was not meant as an insult.  By the 1980s and 1990s, simp’s meaning started to change.  Rap artists started to use it to mean unmanly men.  It was the antonym for being a pimp.  This new meaning was overly soft or sympathetic, especially towards women.

In 2019 there was a large rise in the use of simp.  A TikTok trend emerged after Marco Borghi (@polo.boyy) inspired content creators to start making content about the word.  Most of the early content was created by men who critiqued the actions of ‘weaker’ men.  But over time, women joined the movement as well.  They exposed how uncomfortable and dangerous simp behavior can be.

As it currently stands, simp refers to someone who is overly nice towards someone else.  It is usually meant to talk about men, but can also be applied to women.  Some people will call themselves a simp for celebrities, but this is rathe benign.  Simp behavior includes: being overly romantic, performing overly affectionate acts towards someone they are not in a relationship with, or spending a lot of money on someone and get nothing in return.  It is also used as an insult, particularly against male feminists.  It was deemed so offensive that Twitch even banned the word.

So, what do you think?  Is simp behavior dangerous?

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Reference:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/07/style/simp-history-slang.html
https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=simp