What does the word "bimbo" really mean?

Question

We were in the dressing room at the club and all the girls said they had been called a bimbo at one time or another...inlc. me. But none of us really knew what it meant or where it came from.

Answer 1

Bimbo is a term that emerged in popular English language usage in the late 20th Century to describe a stupid, pliable woman. This term began as early as 1929. For instance, in the silent film, Desert Nights, it describes a cheap female crook as a bimbo. This word, bimbo, derives from the Italian words of masculine gender, its first usage in English was for stupid men; it now is understood to mean a woman unless modified as male bimbo, himbo, or mimbo. Some still prefer the explicitly female variant bimbette, which has also entered The American Heritage Dictionary. Others use bimbette for a younger bimbo. The word bimbo is sometimes interpreted as the backronym "Body Impressive, Brain Optional".

A bimbo isn't necessarily highly sexually attractive. Being a bimbo is a state of mind, and reflects a person who exaggerates the effort and value put into her physical attractiveness. She is often perceived to be shallowly focusing on her physical appearance and neglecting or even willfully stifling the development of other parts of her personality.

The archetype of a bimbo with sex appeal is much used as a stock character in comedies with sexual humor, an example being Christina Applegate's character, Kelly Bundy, in Married... with Children. Alicia Silverstone's character, Cher Horowitz, in Clueless is more accurately described as a valley girl, a similar archetype with more laughably unusual priorities and behaviors than are strictly derived from the bimbo themes of comical stupidity and sex appeal. An older comedy archetype of perhaps more direct resemblance to the bimbo is the dumb blonde—for example, the giggling, naïve characters often portrayed by such sultry actresses as Marilyn Monroe. Humor deriving from blonde women's (or male jocks') stupidity has been accused of sexism.

Answer 2

Bimbo was actually the name of Betty Boop's dog. Bimbo later evolved into a boyfriend. The problem with Bimbo was that he was a worthless lover.

Today Bimbo usually denotes a woman of low morals and is basically worthless.

Please keep in mind that the description of bimbo is my opinion, and is subject to argument from other persons.

I might like to add that drewbusby has a pretty comprehensive answer.

Answer 3

Different translations of the bible would suggest love and charity are synonmus. Examples found in.1st Corrinthians ch. 13 vs. 1-17 illustrate this many times. I would enjoy hearing from a scholar of the languages used in those past times to clarify my understanding. The story of the "World's Poorest Philanthropist", Gilbert "Harold" Ewing II (myself) is the reason for this querry. The " act of grace", or charity, reffered to in the news interview, has posited this question and I lack the sort of education to provide any insights of true value.

Answer 4

Most people associate the word 'bimbo' with a dumb blond stereotype.
In Italian, the word means baby.
I cant see the connection.

Answer 5

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bimbo

Answer 6

It's interesting that it originally refferred to dumb men.

Answer 7

a dummy