BIMBO NOUN (PEOPLE AND SOCIETY)

In media slang, an attractive but unintelligent young woman (especially one who has an affair with a public figure); a sexy female airhead. Etymology: This was originally a direct borrowing from Italian bimbo 'little child, baby'. The word was in use in English in other senses before this one developed (see below); in all of them the original Italian meaning has been lost, but in this case there may be some connection with the use of baby for a girlfriend, and possibly some influence from dumbo as well. History and Usage: Bimbo first came into English in the early twenties, when it was used on both sides of the Atlantic (although mainly in the US) as a contemptuous term for a person of either sex; ironically, P. G. Wodehouse wrote in the forties about 'bimbos who went about the place making passes at innocent girls after discarding their wives'. By the end of the twenties it had developed the more specific sense of a stupid or 'loose' woman, especially a prostitute. During 1987, bimbo started to enjoy a new vogue in the media, this time without the implication of prostitution: journalists claimed that the bimbo was epitomized by young women who were prepared to 'kiss and tell', ending their affairs with the rich and famous by selling their stories to the popular press. In the US bimbos cost politicians their careers; Britain also had its own 'battle of the bimbos' in 1988, when the affairs of certain rich men were exposed and the lifestyle of the bimbo was discussed in court. The word started to acquire derivatives: a teenage bimbo came to be known as a bimbette and a male bimbo as a bimboy (but see also himbo), while having an affair with a bimbo was even described as bimbology in one paper. In the strict sense the bimbo exists on the fringes of pornography, and some cynics might say she has the mental capacity of a minor kitchen appliance. Independent 23 July 1988, p. 5 A gathering of playboys just wasn't a party unless there was at least one...scantily clad bimbette swimming around in a bathtub of shampoo. Arena Autumn/Winter 1988, p. 157 Actor Rob Lowe was at the Cannes Film Festival, expressing frustration with his reputation as the Brat Pack's leading bimboy. People 5 June 1989, p. 79 Still, Smith, and Gans are not bimbos and understandably bristle at accusations that they are chatty-cathies for their white male superiors. New York Woman Nov. 1989, p. 60