blimp
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Origin not entirely certain. However, most historians believe that it is onomatopoeia for the sound a blimp makes when thumped. Although there is some disagreement among historians, credit for coining the term is usually given to Lt. A.D. Cunningham of the British Royal Navy in 1915.
There is an often repeated, but false, alternative explanation for the term. The erroneous story is that at some time in the early 20th century, the United States military had two classes for airships: Type A-rigid and Type B-limp, hence “blimp”. In fact, A. D. Topping reports on the “Etymology of ‘Blimp’”, in the AAHS Journal, Winter 1963, that:
J.R.R. Tolkien speculated that the word was a portmanteau word deriving from 'blister' and 'lump': 'the vowel i not u was chosen because of its diminutive significance -- typical of war humour'
Audio (Southern England): | (file) |
blimp (plural blimps)
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blimp (third-person singular simple present blimps, present participle blimping, simple past and past participle blimped)
blimp n (plural blimpuri)
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