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''Simp'' is an internet slang term describing someone who shows excessive sympathy and attention toward another person, typically someone who does not reciprocate the same feelings, in pursuit of affection or a sexual relationship. ''Urban Dictionary'' defines a simp as "someone who does way too much for a person they like". This behavior, known as ''simping'', is carried out toward a variety of targets, including celebrities, politicians, e-girls, and e-boys. The term had sporadic usage until getting traction on social media in 2019, to mock men said to pander to specific women.

Origins

Originally a shortening of "simpleton," the ''New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English'' traces usage of the noun ''simp'' to 1903. The shortening has appeared for example in the ''New York Times'' as early as 1923, when the paper reported on a letter by one Lillian Henderson criticizing the members of two clubs in Atlantic City for unmarried men:

Those bachelor simps are afraid to take a chance and too tight to share their earnings with a wife.

''Simp'' began to have the connotation of someone being "soft" and "overly sympathetic" in the 1980s, when it was used by West Coast rappers such a Hugh E.M.C., Too Short, and E-40. In 1999, the term was used in the Three 6 Mafia song "Sippin' on Some Syrup" as an antonym for ''pimp''; Too Short has described a "simp" as equivalent to "a knockoff pimp". The term has been expressed as an acronym for ''Sucker/Sucka Idolizing Mediocre Pussy'', which according to ''Gizmodo Australia'' is "telling of its 20th century origins".

A definition of ''simp'' appeared on ''Urban Dictionary'' in 2005, and the word continued to be used by rappers into the 2010s, when it was adopted by members of manosphere, incel, and MGTOW (Men Going Their Own Way) forums alongside similar derogatory terms such as '' cuck'', ''beta'', and ''white knight''.The word became widely popular on TikTok in 2019, and soon also became popular on Twitch and Twitter. According to Google Trends, interest in the term doubled between late 2018 and late 2019.

The word has been used by some fan communities who call themselves "simps" for a celebrity figure. According to ''The Daily Dot'', the term is often used ironically; similarly, Magdalene Taylor at '' MEL Magazine'' says the term is "used mostly as a joke". Nathan Grayson writes at ''Kotaku'' that it is "difficult to find breaks in the chain of the word’s linguistic lineage".

Contemporary usage

In July 2020, the official Twitter account for Archie Comics channel for comments calling the comics' main character, Archie Andrews, a simp. ''The A.V. Club'' opined that, while it was "pretty safe to say that Archie Andrews is, quite simply, the simpiest of the simps." The Twitter post was likely an attempt at exploiting the Streisand effect for viral marketing. Contrary to the Twitter post, few, if any, comments on the Archie Comics YouTube channel accused the character of being a simp.

In August, Australian politician Bill Shorten used the term on national television, saying on an ABC segment that Prime Minister Scott Morrison needed "to make sure he doesn't look like he's just a simp to Donald Trump".

In September, users of Reddit created a pledge called "No Simp September", similar to No Nut November (a month-long abstention from masturbation). Participation in "No Simp September" required posters to abstain from upvoting women's photos, watching pornography, and "giving money to online sex workers", including "e-girls". In October, Mikael Thalen at ''The Daily Dot'' described Twitter users as "simping hard" over leaked photos of Hunter Biden.

A November 20 article in '' Vox'' about posting cringe on TikTok discussed the character of TikTok user Nate Varrone called "Mr. Simp Sexual", of the "biggest stars" of the genre. Varrone explained the character thus:

He's from Michigan and he had a girlfriend named Melissa that he just wants back so fucking badly ..He's just not in a good place right now, emotionally. I think he uses TikTok to fill the hole in his heart and find a new lover. The horniness this guy has, no human has ever felt that amount of horny in their entire life. It's like he has a curse. He thinks he has to hook up immediately or else he'll die.

In January 2021, ''Vogue'' reported on an "adoring" Instagram account of self-declared "simps" expressing affection toward then-Georgia Senate candidate Jon Ossoff.

Reception

While the term initially denoted a specific kind of sycophant, upon achieving broad popularity, it began to be used more loosely. In April 2020, an opinion piece in ''Men's Health'' described the use of the term as "pretty messed up", and men who labeled others with the term as "entitled assholes", saying, "if you've ever complimented a woman, apparently you're a simp". Hayley Soen writes at ''The Tab'' that "the simp has come to take the place of the softboi", describing him as "a boy who is a romantic failure ..definitely the type of boy you'd tell the girls is 'a little too nice, and "probably doesn't even have a lads' group chat"; Soen writes that the term is used "sometimes to describe even the bare minimum level of respect between a man and a woman". According to the ''Evening Standard'', while "the term could also have some value if it undermines a culture of stringing people along emotionally", it also had "potentially offensive connotations". In ''The New York Times'', Ezra Marcus and Jonah Bromwich describe the term as a misogynist insult, one which "expresses discomfort with equality when it comes to gender, and offers a simple way to dismiss the people causing that discomfort". Anna María of ''The Daily Dot'' writes that while the term is mostly used "ironically and without misogynistic undertones", "it doesn't take much to be called a simp" in some anti-feminist spaces, and that "everything from pining after a crush to actually respecting women could be considered simping". Taylor writes that the idea of the "simp" most often "seems to be a guy who simply treats women well, or just not like trash" and is "just another scapegoat for MGTOW misogyny".

Twitch ban

In May 2020, ''Kotaku'' reported that Twitch was "cracking down on" custom emotes using the word "simp", and had been "on a simp emote deleting spree" since late February. Twitch often requires its "partners" to submit custom emotes for approval prior to users being permitted to embed them; most of these emotes simply depicted a streamer or a fictional character holding up a sign with "SIMP" written on it, or were rasterizations of the text of the word itself. By December 2020, the word was described as a "favorite in the Twitch community" by ''The Verge''.

Twitch announced in December 2020 that administrative action would be taken against the accounts of streamers and commentators who used the word, along with "incel" and "virgin", saying that those words were offensive; Twitch COO Sara Clemens said during a "town hall" live-stream that, while use of the words would be permitted under approved circumstances, Twitch would be "proactively denying" custom emotes that included the words. This ban was part of a broader expansion of Twitch's list of forbidden content; the policy, viewable on Twitch's website, also prohibited posting that "expresses inferiority" based on "moral deficiencies". At the time of the announcement, the policy was planned to take effect on January 22, 2021.

Reception to the announcement and proposed policy changes was largely negative; Bryan Rolli at ''The Daily Dot'' wrote that Twitch would "probably have a hell of a time enforcing the 'simp' ban", and ''Gizmodo'' said sarcastically that "actual simps and virgins erestill welcome" on the streaming site. ''Screen Rant'' said that a blanket ban on "simp", "incel" and "virgin" contrasted unfavorably with a "context is needed" policy on the much more offensive racial slur "nigger". According to ''Ars Technica'', Twitch had an "inconsistent history in responding to reports of problematic behavior". In interviews with ''Kotaku'', people affected by the ban described their channels' use of the term as mostly benign—one streamer said it was "mostly banter and, in some cases, a compliment". Another streamer, while acknowledging that the word was sometimes used to describe "quite creepy" behavior, said her use of a "simp" emote was "mainly just a joke within my community".

See also

* List of Generation Z slang

References

External links

* {{wiktionary-inline

1900s neologisms
1980s slang
1990s slang
2010s slang
2020s slang
Celebrity fandom
Hip hop phrases
Human sexuality
Internet memes
Internet slang
Interpersonal attraction
Pejorative terms for people